LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, 



Chap. Copyright No. 

Shell.... A^. £ 



UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



BEULAH-LAND; 



OR, 



Words of Good Cheer to the Old. 



BY 



THEODORE L. CUYLER, Z>. D. 




AMERICAN TRACT SOCIET Y, ^W\ ^£~ i 

10 EAST 23D STREET, NEW YORK. 



The Library j App® 
of Congress j ^tp^ ^ <g 



WASHINGTON 



COPYRIGHT, 1896, 
BY AMERICAN TRACT SOCIETY. 



Contents. 



i. Beulah-Land -page 5 

2. God's Veterans .__ 13 

3. Light at Evening Time 24 

4. The Cedar Christian _ _ 34 

5. Living by the Day ._ _.. 43 

6. In the Sunshine of Christ's Love __ — 52 

7. The Lord's Shut-Ins ._ 59 

8. Jesus Close By Us 65 

9. Songs in the Night - 7$ 

10. Waiting on God _ 83 

11. Puritan Homes and Thanksgiving-Days ,. 90 

12. A Precious Faith 100 

13. Seven Jewels in the Christian's Casket 108 

14. Mothers in Israel — - 118 

15. Christ Knoweth His Own 128 

16. The Honey of God's Word - — 135 

17. The Right Kind of Submission .__ 144 



4 CONTENTS. 

18. Sugar in the Tea; or, The Christian's Assurance .— 151 

19. God Never Disappoints Us 158 

20. Fruitful Christians _ 165 

21. A Little While 175 

22. Ready! _ 183 

23. Cheerful Thoughts about Going Home — _ 190 

24. An Eye on Heaven , =_ 197 



BEULAHLAND. 



1. THE LAND OF BEULAH. 

Those who are familiar with John 
Bunyan's immortal allegory will remem- 
ber how he brings his Pilgrims, in the 
closing days of their homeward journey, 
into the Land of Beulah. They had left 
far behind them the valley of the death- 
shadow and the horrible Doubting Castle 
in which Giant Despair imprisoned and 
tortured his hapless victims. In this de- 
lightful Beulah-land they found the atmos- 
phere very sweet and balmy. They heard 
continually the singing of birds and saw 
an abundance of flowers blooming by the 
wayside. The sun shone by night as well 
as by day. 



6 BEULAH-LAND. 

Glorious visions of heaven broke upon 
them ; for they were in sight of the Celes- 
tial City, and in their walks they encoun- 
tered several groups of the shining ones. 
Here they were not in want of the fruits 
of the field or the yield of the vintage, 
for the King fed them with an abundance 
of all the good things which they had 
sought for in all their pilgrimage. As 
they walked to and fro in this goodly 
land they had more rejoicing than when 
travelling in regions more remote from 
their Father's house. Beside their path 
were open gates inviting them into or- 
chards and vineyards, and gardens filled 
with flowers and fruits delicious to their 
taste. In answer to their questions, the gar- 
dener informed Christian and Hopeful that 
these were the King's gardens, planted by 
him for his own delight as well as for the 
solace of the pilgrims. The gardener in- 



THE LAND OF BEULAH. 7 

vited them to make free of all the orchards 
and the vineyards, and bade them refresh 
themselves with the dainties, They were 
drawing near to the end of their long jour- 
ney, and beyond the river that has no 
bridge was the New Jerusalem in all its 
flashing splendors. They were almost 
home! 

Now it may seem at first sadly at vari- 
ance with facts to compare the closing 
years of even the best Christian's life 
with that region of Beulah which Bunyan 
has pictured in such glowing colors. Is 
not old age commonly a period of declin- 
ing bodily powers and sometimes of in- 
creasing mental decrepitude? Do not 
the ears often become deaf and the " keep- 
ers of the house tremble, and those that 
look out of the windows are darkened"? 
Does not even the grasshopper become a 
burden on shoulders that have become 



8 BEULAH-LAND. 

weak and weary ? All this is indeed true 
in regard to the physical infirmities that 
overtake many of Christ's faithful follow- 
ers during the latter stages of their pil- 
grimage. A Christian has no immunity 
from disease, or poverty, or affliction, or 
bodily decline, or death. In these respects 
the same lot happeneth to all. 

Yet there is another side to the picture. 
Old age is often a period of activity and 
of high spiritual joy, as well as of ripe 
experiences of that perfect love that cast- 
eth out all fear. It was " Paul the aged " 
who was rejoicing in the Lord always, and 
with many a scar on his back and many 
a dent on his shield went home to glory 
shouting ! They that wait on the Lord 
renew their strength. Those who have 
dwelt in blessed communion with God for 
many a year, and have beheld as in a mir- 
ror the glory of their Lord, may find them- 



THE LAND OF BEULAH. g 

selves changed more and more into the 
same image as by the Spirit of the Lord. 
It is my purpose to present in these fol- 
lowing brief chapters some hearty words 
of cheer to such of my comrades as have 
heard the clock of time strike out its 
solemn threescore years and ten. There 
is nothing in that sound to frighten us, or 
to make our lips turn white or our knees 
to tremble. Rather should this voice out 
of the eternities quicken our zeal, and fire 
our ardor, and invigorate our faith, and 
make us as they whom when the Bride- 
groom cometh he shall find watching. I 
have some hope, therefore, that many a 
veteran servant of Jesus Christ, when he 
or she shall peruse these pages, may feel 
the soft breezes of Beulah-land fanning 
their cheeks, and the music of Beulah's 
singing-birds be heard as a sweet carol 
from the heavenly climes. 



io BEULAH-LAND. 

Quite too often is old age represented 
under the dreary similitude of winter, with 
its bitter biting winds whistling through 
leafless boughs, and its frozen clods ring- 
ing like iron beneath our feet. In our 
American climate there is a more genial 
season that bears the picturesque name 
of Indian Summer, when nature puts on 
a sweet smile before the wintry frosts set 
in, and the lingering foliage is clad in 
crimson and gold. A Christian life has its 
bright Indian Summer also. The harvest 
of good deeds — from good seed sown in 
early youth — is being garnered. Graces 
adorn the veteran believer and beautify 
him like the scarlet glories of an autumn 
forest. Like shocks of corn ripened in 
sunshine and shower are those servants 
and handmaids of the Lord who still " bring 
forth fruit in old age " that is savory to 
the taste. Whatsoever may be said of 



THE LAND OF BEULAH. n 

the longevity of the mental powers, some 
of the most beautiful Christians I know 
of are in the genial Indian Summer of 
threescore and ten. Their orchards are 
still as fruitful as the orchards of Beulah, 
and yield their fruits every month. They 
are always abounding in the work of their 
Master. 

On a bright July morning in my early 
youth I was privileged to take a walk 
with the venerable poet Wordsworth over 
the picturesque acres that lie around his 
cottage at Rydal Mount. The sunlight 
fell on his white locks, and the sunshine 
of peace fell on his tranquil spirit. Ripe 
in years, ripe in fame, and ripe in a Chris- 
tian trust, he was spending his cheerful 
Indian Summer amid his lakes and his 
everlasting hills. The grand old poet was 
fond of repeating the following lines of 
Mrs. Barbauld, which he said were un- 



12 BEULAH-LAND. 

surpassed by any in the English lan- 
guage : 

" Life ! we have been long together 
Through pleasant and through cloudy weather ; 
' T is hard to part when friends are dear, 
Perhaps 'twill cost a sigh, a tear. 

* ' Then steal away, give little warning, 
Choose thine own time ; 

Say not good-night, but in son t happier clime 
Bid me good-morning I" 



GOD'S VETERANS. ij 



2. GOD'S VETERANS. 

"They that are planted in the house 
of the Lord shall flourish in the courts of 
our God ; they shall still bring forth fruit 
in old age ; i'ley shall be full of sap and 
green." So readeth the Revised Version. 
Young Christians are like an orchard in 
May; every blossom is full of promise. 
The same persons, after the sunshine and 
showers of forty or fifty years, become 
like : n orchard in October, when the ripe 
apples are ready for the bin. 

In this fast age there is a clamorous 
demand for young men, and sometimes 
a disposition to shelve those who are 
past threescore ; but there are some men 
who will not be shelved, or, if they have 



i 4 BEULAH-LAND. 

been, the public necessities take them 
down again, and demand their ripe judg- 
ment and experience. When a difficult 
case comes into court it is commonly a 
veteran lawyer that is called on to make 
the decisive argument; when the young 
physician is baffled by the novel disease the 
old doctor, who has hunted down every 
malady known to mortal flesh, is called 
into consultation. When the life of Ger- 
many was assailed by the legions of 
France three old heads were put to- 
gether — Kaiser Wilhelm, Bismarck and 
von Moltke ; they soon blew the invasion 
into fragments. The ancient parish of 
Franklin, Mass., was once disturbed by 
novelties that threatened its orthodoxy 
and its peace; the venerable Doctor Em- 
mons, at the age of ninety, put on his 
cocked hat, and, marching into the meet- 
ing house, quelled the commotion in fif- 



GOD'S VETERANS. ij 

teen minutes, and scattered the fogs of 
heresy from the atmosphere. The most 
colossal character on the globe to-day will 
soon celebrate his eighty-seventh birth- 
day ; it was the lack of his magnificent 
leadership, more than anything else, that 
cost the British Liberal Party their recent 
rout. His white plume might have turned 
the battle. 

For many of the achievements of life, 
youth and early manhood and woman- 
hood are the most favorable ; but for cer- 
tain others the long experience, the com- 
pacted mental fiber and matured judgment 
of old age are the most serviceable endow- 
ment. Some people do not get their full 
growth until they have passed the merid- 
ian. A great deal of vicious nonsense 
has been written about " the dead line of 
fifty." The author of that preposterous 
phrase could never have heard that Milton 



1 6 BEULAH-LAND. 

wrote the " Paradise Lost " and Benjamin 
Franklin began his philosophical studies 
when they had passed that "dead line." 
Dr. Chalmers at sixty-three was the field- 
marshal of the glorious exodus of the Scot- 
tish Free Church ; John Wesley at eighty- 
eight preached every day and still held 
the helm of Methodism ; and Dr. Richard 
S. Storrs at seventy-five can outwork and 
outpreach a legion of brilliant pulpiteers 
whose armor sparkles with the " dews of 
youth." 

My beloved British brother, Dr. New- 
man Hall, still finds his bow abiding in 
strength at fourscore ; and a most vivacious 
letter from General Neal Dow, the father 
of "prohibition," now lies before me, writ- 
ten at the completion of his ninety-second 
year ! There is a vast difference between 
being old in years and being old in mental 
and spiritual force. Some young persons 



GOD'S VETERANS. 17 

have the weakness of senility, while many 
veterans have the fiber of life's morning 
far into its afternoon. The secret of keep- 
ing young is to keep at work and never 
allow the rust to collect on one's weapons. 
Worry corrodes, but steady mental work 
strengthens ; especially when one obeys 
the simple laws of health which God has 
written on our bodies. Actual " retiring 
from business" is very apt to rust any 
man out speedily. If a man resigns his 
store, his shop, or his profession, let him 
lay hold of something else useful to his 
fellow men. The celebrated Dr. Archi- 
bald Alexander kept young by doing a 
certain amount of intellectual work every 
day, so that he should not lose his touch. 
He was as full of sap on the day before 
his death as he was when he mounted his 
horse and rode through Virginia on his 
missionary tours at the age of twenty-two. 
3 



1 8 BEULAH-LAND. 

He prepared, and often used, a prayer 
that was so beautiful that I quote a portion 
of it for my fellow-seniors on life's arena : 

" Oh, most merciful God, cast me not 
off in the time of old age ; forsake me not 
when my strength faileth. May my hoary 
head be found in righteousness. Preserve 
my mind from dotage and imbecility, and 
my body from protracted disease and ex- 
cruciating pain. Deliver me from de- 
spondency in my declining years, and en- 
able me to bear with patience whatever 
may be thy holy will. I humbly ask that 
my reason may be continued to the last ; 
and that I may be so comforted and sup- 
ported that I may leave my testimony in 
favor of the reality of religion, and of thy 
faithfulness in fulfilling thy gracious prom- 
ises. And when my spirit leaves this clay 
tenement, Lord Jesus, receive it! Send 
some of the blessed angels to convey my 



GOD'S VETERANS. jg 

inexperienced soul to the mansions which 
thy love has prepared ; and oh, may I 
have an abundant entrance ministered 
unto me into the kingdom of our Lord 
and Saviour Jesus Christ." 

This petition of the veteran servant of 
God was sweetly fulfilled ; and he fell gen- 
tly asleep, to wake to the exceeding glory. 

Mental vigor often continues through 
old age, and we know that the spirit- 
ual graces often grow in depth and vigor 
by the lapse of years. The Indian Sum- 
mer of many a life is its most beautiful 
period. Its leaf, instead of withering, turns 
to bright scarlet and gold. Faith grows 
in its tenacity of fiber by the long-con- 
tinued exercise of testing God and trust- 
ing his promises. A veteran Christian 
can turn over the leaves of his well-worn 
Bible and say, " This Book has been my 
daily companion. I know all about this 



20 BEULAH-LAND. 

promise, and that one, and that other one, 
for I have tried them for myself. I have 
a great pile of checks which my heavenly 
Father has cashed with precious bless- 
ings." The Bible of my dear old mother 
was full of pencil marks set down along- 
side of the passages which had been her 
" rod and staff " through a pilgrimage of 
five-and-eighty years. As she drew near 
the end of her voyage the " land birds 
came out and lighted in the rigging," to 
show that the shining shore was not far 
ahead. 

To those of my readers w r ho have 
reached the threescore or the fourscore 
on the dial-plate, I would say that you 
ought to grow better as you grow older. 
Veteran soldiers become more expert in 
the selection and use of their weapons. 
In spiritual combats the Christian who 
has vanquished Apollyon often with the 



GOD'S VETERANS. 21 

sword of "all-prayer" is able to say, as 
David said to Abimelech, " there is none 
like that ; give it to me." The testimonies 
of men and women who have known not 
only what but Whom they believed carry 
vast weight. I defy the conceited, scoffing 
skeptic to answer the experimental argu- 
ments of a humble needlewoman of my 
acquaintance who has known Jesus Christ 
intimately for fifty years. " Paul the 
aged " spoke with the authority of a long 
experience as well as with the higher 
authority of a divine inspiration. 

"The glory of young men is their 
strength : and the beauty of old men is 
the gray head." The silvery crown is 
often worn by those mountain peaks which 
tower highest toward heaven. As they 
who voyage toward the Spice Islands 
catch the fragrance when they approach 
the shores, so the voyagers to the Better 



22 BEULAH-LAND. 

Country inhale sweet foretastes when they 
draw nearer home. Bunyan locates a 
Christian old age in the land of Beulah, 
in full bright prospect of the Celestial 
City, where the singing of birds was 
heard, and the sun shone night and day. 

Fellow-pilgrims, be of good cheer ! Make 
happy inventory of your mercies, and 
never give way to peevish and querulous 
lamentations. Keep every window of 
your mind open to new ideas, and strive to 
keep step with the progress of truth and 
of our Master's glorious kingdom. While 
the love of jesus flows like the vital sap 
into every limb and leaf of your nature, 
let your fruits of grace fall abundantly 
into the laps of your fellow-men. Every 
hour of life is precious ; pray do n't idle 
away the Saturday afternoon, when the 
Sabbath morning of glory may break so 
soon! 



GOD'S VETERANS. 23 

"Eye hath not seen, tongue hath not told, 

And ear hath not heard it sung, 
How buoyant and fresh — though it seems 
to grow old — 

Is the heart forever young. 

"Forever young — though life's long age 

Hath every nerve unstrung — 
The happy heart is a heritage 

That keeps an old man young I" 



24 BEULAH-LAND. 



3. LIGHT AT EVENING TIME. 

God's Word is an inexhaustible jewel- 
bed. What a gem of the first water is 
this beautiful text : " At evening time it 
shall be light I" Like a many-sided dia- 
mond, it flashes out as many truths as it 
has polished sides. As the diamond has 
the quality of glistening in dim and dark- 
some places, so this passage shines bright- 
ly in seasons of trouble and despondency. 
Old people may well put on their specta- 
cles of faith and see what a rare and 
precious verse it is. The people of God 
who are under a cloud may also find in 
it the foretoken of better things to come. 

The passage gleams out from one of the 
olden Jewish prophets — from the prophe- 



LIGHT AT EVENING TIME. 25 

cies of Zachariah, of whom we know very 
little except that he flourished about the 
time of the return from Babylon, 520 years 
before Christ's advent. He is that cheerful 
seer who pictures the streets of Jerusalem 
as yet to be filled with old men leaning on 
their staffs and little boys and girls play- 
ing in the streets thereof. The text oc- 
curs at the close of a remarkable passage, 
which reads as follows in a close transla- 
tion : " And it shall be in that day that 
there shall not be the light of the glitter- 
ing orbs, but densely thick darkness. But 
there shall be one day (it is known to Je- 
hovah) when it shall not be day and night; 
for at the evening time it shall be light." 

Many Bible scholars count this passage 
to be clearly prophetic of the Millennium. 
Our good brothers of the literalistic school 
quote it as predicting Christ's personal 
reign, when his " feet shall again stand on 
4 



26 BEULAH-LAND. 

the mount of Olives." Into that contro- 
versy we shall not enter, being quite satis- 
fied that, while of that day and hour know- 
eth no man, yet " it is known to Jehovah. " 
The beautiful text is so rich in spiritual 
suggestions that we are quite satisfied to 
catch some gleamings of the diamond. 

i. The very essence of hope is in this 
inspiring verse. Some of us may recall a 
weary climb from the Vale of Zermatt up 
the rough acclivities of the Riffelberg, 
amid chilling mists and swirling gusts of 
tempest. The icy vapors penetrated to 
the marrow of our bones. At the Riffel 
all was blinding fog. We pushed on and 
upward, until, as we stood upon the Gor- 
ner Grat, the mighty caravan of clouds 
moved off and left the " body of the heav- 
ens in its clearness." Yonder rose the 
Weisshorn, a pyramid of silver, and the 
peaks of Monte Rosa flashed in crimson 



LIGHT AT EVENING TIME. 27 

and gold. We had been suffocated in 
storm and fog all day ; but at evening 
time it was light. 

This has been the ten thousand times 
repeated experience of God's children. 
Gray-haired Jacob in his loneliness wails 
out, " Joseph is dead ; Simeon is dead ; 
now they take Benjamin also. All these 
things are against me." Presently the 
returning cavalcade arrives to tell him 
that Joseph is governor of Egypt, and 
that he is invited to come and spend his 
sunset of life in the best of the land that 
Pharaoh can offer. A long, troubled day 
has the patriarch weathered through : but 
at evening time it is light. It is a part 
of God's discipline with us to hide his 
throne in clouds and darkness. The office 
of faith is to hold fast to the fact that be- 
hind those clouds a loving Father dwells 
upon that throne. It is the office of hope 



28 BEULAH-LAND. 

to look for the clearing of the clouds by 
and by. If we had no storms we ■should 
never appreciate the blue sky. The trial 
of the tempest is the preparation for the 
warm afterglow of sunshine. Blind un- 
belief is continually railing at God, charg- 
ing him with cruelty and scouting the 
idea of a special providence of all-wise 
love. But faith whispers, " Think it not 
strange, or as though some strange thing 
happened unto thee. God seeth the end 
from the beginning. To the upright there 
ariseth light in darkness. All things 
work together for good to them that love 
him. ,, Hope bids us push on and upward. 
Push upward, and you will 

"Hear hope singing, sweetly singing, 
Softly in an undertone, 
Singing as if God had taught her 
It is better further on. ' ' 

Only keep pressing higher, and closer to 



LIGHT AT E VENING TIME. 2Q 

Jesus, instead of wandering downward 
into doubt and sullen despair. 

The darkness may be thick about thee 
now, my brother; but the Christian life 
is a walk of faith. God never deceives 
his children. If we but keep fast hold of 
the Guiding Hand we shall find the road 
to be not one step longer or harder than 
is best for us. God has piloted every 
saint through this very road and up these 
very hills of difficulty. It will be better 
further on. Every chastening of a be- 
liever's soul lies at the end of a painful 
ordeal. Every success worth the having 
lies at the end of brave, protracted toil. 
Twenty years of storm must be battled 
through by Wilberforce and Clarkson be- 
fore Negro emancipation is enacted by 
the British Parliament. At evening time 
the sky was crimsoned with the flush of 
victory. 



jo BEULAH-LAND. 

2. This passage has a beautiful applica- 
tion to a Christian old age. Many people 
have a silly dread of growing old, and look 
upon gray hairs as a standing libel. But, 
if life is well spent, its Indian Summer 
ought to bring a full granary and a gold- 
en leaf. The spiritual light at the gloam- 
ing of life becomes mellower; it is strained 
of mists and impurities. The aged be- 
liever seems to see deeper into Gods 
Word and further into God's heaven. 
Not every human life has a golden sunset. 
Some suns go down under a cloud. At 
evening time it is cold and dark. I have 
been looking lately at the testimonies left 
by two celebrated men who died during 
my boyhood. One of them w r as the king 
of novelists, the other was the king of phi- 
lanthropists. Both had lost their fortunes 
and lost their health. 

The novelist wrote as follows : " The 



LIGHT AT EVENING TIME. ji 

old post-chaise gets more shattered at 
every turn of the wheel. Windows will 
not pull up; doors refuse to open and 
shut. Sicknesses come thicker and faster, 
friends become fewer and fewer. Death 
has closed the long, dark avenue upon 
early loves and friendships. I look at 
them as through the grated door of a 
burial-place filled with monuments of 
those once dear to me. I shall never 
see the threescore and ten and shall be 
summed up at a discount." Ah ! that 
is not a cheerful sunset of a splendid 
literary career. At evening time it looks 
gloomy and the air smells of the sep- 
ulchre. 

Listen now to the old Christian philan- 
thropist, whose inner life was hid with 
Christ in God. He writes : " I can scarce 
understand why my life is spared so long, 
except it be to show that a man can be 



32 BEULAH-LAND. 

just as happy without a fortune as with 
one. Sailors on a voyage drink to ' friends 
astern ' till they are half-way across ; and 
after that it is 'friends ahead/ With me 
it has been ' friends ahead ' for many a 
year." The veteran pilgrim was getting 
nearer home. The Sun of Righteousness 
flooded his western sky. At evening time 
it was light. 

3. What a contrast there is between 
the death-bed of the impenitent and that 
of the adopted child of God, whose hope 
is anchored to Jesus. The one is dark ; 
a fearful looking forward to a wrath to 
come. The other is the earnest expecta- 
tion of an endless day which lies beyond 
the glorious sunset. I have just come from 
the sick-room of a woman whose life is 
ebbing away amid intense bodily suffer- 
ing. It is one of the most cheerful spots 
in this sorrow-laden world. Jesus is watch- 



THE CEDAR CHRISTIAN. jj 

ing by that bedside. He administers the 
cordials. He stays up that sinking head. 
11 I am with you always " is to her the 
promise and foretoken of that other state 
of joy, " where I am ye shall be also." At 
evening time that chamber of death is 
light ! 



34 BEULAH-LAND. 



4. THE CEDAR CHRISTIAN. 

Strolling one bright summer morning 
over the velvet carpet of " Chatsworth 
Park " we came suddenly upon a cedar of 
Lebanon. It was the first and only one 
we ever saw ; our first impulse was to un- 
cover our head, and make obeisance to 
this monarch in exile, this lone representa- 
tive of the most regal family of trees upon 
the globe. Every bough was laden with 
glorious association to us. Broad, gnarled, 
severe, rough old tree as it was, yet it 
blossomed with poetry and hung golden 
with heavenly teachings. As we gazed 
through our tears at the exiled sovereign 
the voice of the psalmist was in our ears, 
" The righteous shall grow like a cedar in 
Lebanon." 



THE CEDAR CHRISTIAN. jj 

With that hardy veteran of Chatsworth 
in our mind's eye, let us say a word about 
the style of cedar Christians that we need 
in our day. Of pliant, willow church- 
members, of brash and brittle basswood 
professors, of pretentious, fashion-follow- 
ing, bay-tree Christians, we have quite too 
many. Give us more cedars for the pulpit 
and for the pews. 

i. The first quality of the cedar is that 
it grows. It is a live tree. Where there 
is hearty life there must be growth. And 
it is the lamentable lack of inward godli- 
ness that makes the stunted professor. 
There is not vitalizing sap enough in his 
heart-roots to reach up into the boughs of 
his outward conduct. There is not vigor 
enough in the trunk of his character to 
stand erect. No answering showers brought 
down by fervent prayer cleanse the dust 
of worldliness from his yellow, sicklied 



j6 BEULAH-LAND. 

leaves. There he is — just as he was " set 
out " in the church a score of years ago ; 
no larger, no broader, no brighter in graces 
than he was then ; the caterpillars of lust 
having spun their unsightly webs all over 
his branches. He has not grown an ell 
in any one Bible trait. He has not yield- 
ed one single fruit of the Spirit. He is a 
cumberer of the ground ; in the way of a 
better man ; all the while drinking up 
God's pure air and water and yet fulfill- 
ing Satan's purpose. Not of such a prayer- 
neglecting professor, not of such a time- 
serving, money-loving, fashion-worshipping 
professor, could we honestly say, " He 
grows like a cedar in Lebanon." 

2. But the cedar not only grows ; it 
has a peculiar style of growth which God's 
people may well imitate. It grows through 
all weathers. It is a hardy tree, or else it 
could not live a month in the arctic cli- 



THE CEDAR CHRISTIAN. j? 

mate of Lebanon's sky-piercing summits. 
Delicate plants might thrive on the warm 
lap of southern exposures, but not up 
among the rifts of whirling snows, or 
where the steel-like air gleams under the 
silent moon. Sudden hurricanes may 
twist off the gorgeous magnolias of the 
vale, or crack the brittle bay-tree, but let 
the gale rage ever so fiercely on Lebanon's 
blustering heights, let the snow-squadrons 
join battle in the hurtled air, the cedar 
tosses the tempest from its elastic boughs, 
and stands like the everlasting mountain 
under it. In God's Church there are to 
be found just such lignumvitae characters, 
storm-proof, gold-proof, temptation-proof. 
What a plantation of such cedars were 
the early apostles! What a coronet of 
stalwart storm - defiers graced the sum- 
mit of God's Zion in Reformation days ! 
Zwingli of Switzerland — John Knox, who 



38 BEULAH-LAND. 

never feared the face of man — burly Lat- 
imer, who marched singing to SmithfiekTs 
kindled stake — John Huss, gazing up into 
the open heavens from the suffocating 
smoke and flame which are wrapping his 
tortured limbs — all these were cedars 
through whose branches the very gales of 
persecution made glorious music. Here 
and there is such a cedar Christian discov- 
erable in our century. They never bend. 
They never break. They never compro- 
mise. To such Christians worldliness Com- 
eth, and smooth-tongued expediency Com- 
eth, and sensual pleasure cometh, and slav- 
ery cometh, but " findeth nothing in them." 
Popular hurricanes come down amain 
upon them, smiting a Hopkins, a Pierpont, 
or a Dudley Tyng in the pulpit — smiting 
a Wilberforce, a Jay, or an Adams in the 
legislative hall — smiting a Jonathan Ed- 
wards in his quiet study, a missionary 



THE CEDAR CHRISTIAN. 39 

Lyman in his lonely toils, a Neal Dow in 
his labors for the drunkard, and a Jonas 
King in his labors for the besotted bigots 
of Athens. But the cedar of principle 
proves an overmatch for the blast of self- 
ishness, spite, or superstition. Persecu- 
tion only makes the roots of resolution 
strike the deeper, and the trunk of testi- 
mony stand the firmer. 

3. The greatest peril to such Chris- 
tians as read these lines will not come in 
the form of persecution, but rather from 
those insidious worms that gnaw out the 
very heart of gospel piety. Secret influ- 
ences are the most fatal in the every-day 
life of the every-day, unconspicuous pro- 
fessor. There is a whole colony of busy 
insects that will try the quality of a be- 
liever's timber. And when the community 
is startled by the spiritual defalcation of 
some prominent man in the church, or in 



40 BEULAH-LAND. 

a religious society, it is only the crack of 
a beam or a pillar that was worm-eaten by 
secret sin long before. He only is a cedar 
of Christ's training and polishing who is 
sound to the very core. For the pride of 
Lebanon was not more famous for its 
vigor or its hardiness than for its solidity 
of wood. It knew no decay. It afforded 
asylum to no stealthy insect turning its 
aromatic wood into dust and ashes. There- 
fore did Israel's royal temple-builder select 
it for the most conspicuous and important 
portions of the edifice on Mount Moriah. 
With its fine grain, its high polish, and 
delightful fragrance, every lintel and every 
door-post was at once a strength and an 
ornament to the temple of the living God. 
So stand the faithful, fearless minister of 
Christ, the incorruptible Christian patriot, 
the unflinching testimony-bearer for the 
truth as it is in Jesus. They bid defiance 



THE CEDAR CHRISTIAN, 41 

to the worm of sin while they live, and to 
the worm of calumny when they are dead. 
Centuries hence their memory will be as 
sound and as fragrant as the chests of 
sandal-wood in which the Oriental kings 
were wont to conceal their treasures. 

4. The last noticeable thing with the 
cedar is its breadth of limb. The verdant 
veteran of Chatsworth had a diameter 
greater than his height. Elliot informs 
us that he saw cedars on the top of Leb- 
anon that were thirty feet in circumfer- 
ence of trunk ! Their limbs were so wide- 
spreading that the diameter of the branch- 
es from the extreme of one side of the 
tree to the opposite extreme was one 
hundred feet ! Under that majestic can- 
opy a whole regiment might find shelter. 
Now, we need not go far to find just such 
a broad-armed Christian. Broad in his 

catholic sympathy with all the " faithful in 
6 



42 BEULAH-LAND. 

Christ Jesus" of every sect, broad in his 
love of man, irrespective of clime, color, 
or condition, broad in his pecuniary benev- 
olence, is our cedar brother. Hundreds 
of happy beneficiaries lie down under the 
shadow of his liberality. The poor scholar 
whom he helps with books, the poor or- 
phan whom he helps to a home, the poor 
harlot and the inebriate for whom he 
builds the asylum, the poor sin-struck 
heathen man of far-away India to whom 
he sends the "good tidings," are, each and 
all, the richer for his broad-limbed benef- 
icence. There is room for regiments of 
sufferers to bivouac under such a man. 
It will make a sore and sorrowful void 
when that imperial cedar is transplanted 
to the banks of the crystal river in the 
Paradise of God. 



LIVING B V THE DA Y. 43 



5. LIVING BY THE DAY. 

" My house was well built," said a farm- 
er once to me, "for it was built by the 
day." That is the way in which the best, 
strongest and happiest lives are built; 
they are not constructed "by the job," but 
one attainment in grace is laid upon an- 
other like the blocks of granite in a solid 
house wall. Each day brings its duty to 
be done, its temptation to be met and 
conquered, its burden to be carried and 
its progress to be made heavenward. There 
are 365 days in every year, but really 
there is only one working day, and that is 
to-day. Sufficient to each day is the evil 
thereof. 

This is just the sort of living that I 
commend to my readers. God means to 



44 BEULAH-LAND. 

shut you up to this style of thinking and 
planning and doing when he makes his 
gracious promise, " As thy day so shall 
thy strength be." The journey made up 
a mountain is simply a succession of steps. 
If the climber attempts to leap upward he 
exhausts his strength, if he looks down he 
grows dizzy, and if he looks too far for- 
ward he gets discouraged by the distance 
yet to be surmounted. So in accomplish- 
ing each day's work you have simply to 
take one step at a time, and to take that 
wisely is all that you need to think about. 
Take no anxious thought for the morrow. 
God never made a Christian strong enough 
to stand the strain of to-day's duties and 
all the load of one's anxieties piled upon 
the top of them. Paul himself would have 
broken down if he had attempted the fool- 
ish experiment. We have a right to ask 
our Heavenly Father for strength equal 



LIVING B Y THE DA Y. 45 

to the day, but we have no right to ask 
him for one extra ounce of strength be- 
yond it. 

My friend, learn to take short views. 
If you have money enough to-day for 
your daily wants, and something over for 
Christ's treasury, don't torment yourself 
with the idea that you will yet fetch up 
in the almshouse. If your children clus- 
ter around your table to-day, enjoy the 
music of their voices, train them for God 
and trust them to God, without racking 
yourself with a dread that the little ones 
may be carried off by scarlet fever, or the 
older ones may fall into bad marriages or 
some other disaster. Faith carries pres- 
ent loads, meets present assaults, feeds on 
present promises, and commits the future 
to a faithful God. Its daily song is : 

' ' Keep thou my feet ; I do not ask to see 
The distant scene : one step enough for me," 



46 BEULAH-LAND. 

So we exhort you again most earnestly 
to take short views. Let us not climb the 
high wall till we get to it, or fight the bat- 
tle till it opens, or shed tears over sorrows 
that may never come, or lose the joys and 
the blessings that we have by the sinful 
fear that God may take them away from 
us. We need all the grace that he can 
give us for to-day's battles. I would not 
penetrate into the secrets which to-morrow 
hides if I could. It is far better to know 
Whom we trust, and that he is able to 
keep all that we commit to him until the 
last great day. 

"Why forecast the trials of life 

With such sad and grave persistence, 
And look and watch for a brood of ills 
That as yet have no existence ? 
"Strength for to-day is all we need, 
For we never will see to-morrow ; 
When it comes the morrow will be a to-day, 
With its measure of joy or sorrow/' 



LIVING B Y THE DA Y. 4 y 

The earnest Christian who lives by the 
day not only faces each duty or each trial 
as it comes, but he also is on the lookout 
for each day's opportunities for serving 
his Master. Almost every Christian promi- 
ses himself that some time or other he 
will be very holy-minded and very useful. 
The growing, productive Christian is he 
who is on the watch for opportunities and 
grasps them when they come. The beau- 
tiful morning-glories which opened in my 
little garden yesterday are all withered 
away. So with some precious opportu- 
nities to serve my Saviour and to do good 
to my fellow-man — they will never bloom 
again. But there were fresh flowers that 
opened with this morning's sun ; even so 
doth our Master give us a fresh chance to 
serve him and to bless others every day 
we live. Here lies the generic difference 
between profitable and unprofitable Chris- 



48 BEULAH-LAND. 

tians. The one class are always looking 
for opportunities to do a kind act, to gain 
an influence, to win a soul to Jesus. 

The Earl of Shaftesbury in England 
and William E. Dodge in America were 
two men whose lives illustrated grandly the 
principle of grasping every day's oppor- 
tunities to strike a blow for Jesus Christ. 
The holy and heroic Gen. Samuel C. 
Armstrong, of Hampton Institute — the 
noblest benefactor the negro has had, next 
to Abraham Lincoln — left a remarkable 
paper, written just before his death, in 
which he says, " I have never made any 
sacrifices." It was joy and ecstasy, the 
very life of his life, to be doing good ; 
the " sacrifice " would have been to miss 
the precious opportunity which each day 
brought him. Harlan Page made it a rule 
never to talk to any person even for fifteen 
minutes without saying something helpful 



LIVING B Y THE DA Y. 49 

to profit that person's soul. Our days are 
very much what we choose to make them. 
The happy days are those in which we im- 
prove the golden occasions, and the most 
terrible spectre that can haunt us is the 
ghost of a lost opportunity. That is what 
will make hell so unendurable to those 
who fling away Christ's loving offers and 
their time for repentance. 

With new duties come new supplies of 
grace every morning to those who seek it 
by earnest prayer. We cannot live on 
yesterday's meals. As the children of 
Israel gathered fresh manna every morn- 
ing, so must we look upward for a fresh 
supply of heavenly "rations " for the day's 
march. The early hour is the best for 
prayer and for feeding on God's word. 
That godly-minded Christian, Garret Noel 
Bleecker of New York, used to go home 
at noonday not only to take his meal with 
7 



So BEULAH-LAND. 

his family but to have a few quiet mo- 
ments with his Master. Arthur Tap- 
pan had a room up near the roof in his 
store for noontide devotions. In these 
times of awful stress and strain on busi- 
ness men, would it not clear their heads 
and nerve their faith if they would stop, 
amid the heat of the day's toil and hurry, 
to have a few minutes face to face with 
God? 

The secret of happy days is not in our 
outward circumstances, but in our own 
heart life. A large draught of Bible taken 
every morning, a throwing open of the 
soul's windows to the precious promises of 
the Master, a few words of fervent prayer, 
a deed or two of kindness to the first person 
you meet, will brighten your countenance 
and make your feet " like hinds' feet " for 
the day's march. If you want to get your 
aches and your trials out of sight bury 



LIVING B Y THE DA Y. ji 

them under your mercies. Begin every day 
with God, and then, keeping step with 
your Master, march on toward home over 
the roughest road, or in face of the hardest 
winds that blow. Live for Jesus by the 
day, and on every day, until you come 
where " the Lamb is the light thereof," 
and there is no night there. 



52 BEULAH-LAND. 



6. IN THE SUNSHINE OF CHRIST'S LOVE. 

One of the historic landmarks of the 
church of Christ was that " upper room " 
in Jerusalem where the Master instituted 
the sacrament which commemorates his 
atoning love. After he had broken the 
bread, and given the cup to his disciples, 
he summons them to " arise and go hence," 
and leads them out towards Gethsemane. 
What a wonderful walk was that, and what 
a wonderful talk he gave them as they 
moved through the silent streets to the 
vale of Kedron ! That chamber had been 
redolent of his redeeming love ; the atmos- 
phere was laden with its sweet fragrance. 
The first thing he speaks of is the vital 
union which he has formed between them 



IN THE SUNSHINE OF CHRIST S LOVE, jj 

and himself— a union as close as that of 
the parent vine to all its branches and ten- 
drils. Then he tells them that even as 
the Father had loved him so did he love 
them, and tenderly charges them, " Abide 
ye in my love." Not their love to him, 
but his love for them. He had created a 
warm, bright, blessed atmosphere of love, 
and he urges his little flock to continue 
in it. 

Is it possible for all of us Christians to 
live steadily in this bright sunshine, where 
his love is falling in a constant stream of 
warm effulgence ? It must be possible ; 
for our Master never commands what we 
cannot perform. Sinless perfection may 
not be attainable in this life ; but there 
is one thing which all of Christ's redeemed 
people can do, and that is to keep them- 
selves in the delightful atmosphere of his 
love. It is our fault and our shame that 



54 BEULAH-LAND. 

we spend so many days in the chilling fogs, 
or under the heavy clouds of unbelief, or 
down in the damp, dark cellars of con- 
formity to the world. There are three 
conditions which Christ enjoins upon us. 
If we fulfill them we shall abide in the 
sunshine of his love. 

i. The first one is obedience. " If ye 
keep my commandments ye shall abide in 
my love, even as I have kept my Father's 
commandments and abide in his love." A 
boy leaves home for school or college and 
his mother packs his trunk, with many a 
tear moistening his wardrobe. She puts 
a Bible there, and says to him, " Now, my 
dear boy, this you will read every morning 
and night ; and while you are on your 
knees in prayer your mother is with you." 

In like manner we who call ourselves 
Christians should ever abide in the bright 
warm atmosphere of our Master's love. 



IN THE SUNSHINE OF CHRIST'S LOVE 35 

We must heartily accept a whole Christ, 
both as Saviour and Lord, and accept him 
without any reserves or limitations. He 
has a right to command; it is ours simply 
to obey. Stephen Girard, the Philadelphia 
millionaire, was once called on by a poor 
man who wanted employment. Girard 
told him to go into a vacant lot near by 
and carry all the stones on one side of the 
lot to the other side, and the next day to 
move them all back again. At the end of 
the week, when he came for his wages, 
Girard said to him, " I like you." 

2. The second direction for keeping in 
the bright beamings of the divine love is 
growth in godly character. Turn to the 
Epistle of Jude and read this : " Building 
up yourselves on your most holy faith, 
keep yourselves in the love of God." The 
construction of a Christian character is 
like the construction of a house. There 



56 BEULAH-LAND. 

must first be a solid foundation. But some 
church members never get much beyond 
this. Up yonder on Lafayette Avenue are 
long lines of massive stone work, laid there 
twenty years ago. Those grass-grown 
stones are the foundation for a Romish 
cathedral, but no cathedral stands there 
yet. Some people start with a certain 
amount of faith in Christ, and profess that 
before the world. Then they stop there. 
They do not " add to their faith courage, 
temperance, meekness, patience, godliness, 
love," and all the other stones that enter 
into a solid and beautiful Christian life. 
Every Sunday they come and draw away 
more bricks and stones, in the shape of 
truth ; but they do not build them into 
their character. Such self-stunted profes- 
sors know but little of the sweet sunshine 

and joy of Christ's smile. They may be 
growing rich, or growing popular, or grow- 



IN THE SUNSHINE OF CHRIST'S LO VE, 57 

ing in self-esteem, but they are not grow- 
ing in grace. They try to live out in an- 
other atmosphere than the love of Christ,, 
and their piety is " winter-killed " and 
withering away. Such religion is a poor 
joyless thing; it succeeds no better than 
an attempt to raise oranges among the 
freezing fogs of Newfoundland. 

3. There is one more essential to a 
strong and a happy life. Keeping Christ's 
commandments and constructing a solid, 
godly character cannot be done without 
divine help. Therefore the apostle adds, 
" Praying in the Holy Spirit, keep your- 
selves in the love of God." I can under- 
stand why a backslider does not pray ; or, 
if he does, makes it a hollow formality. 
But every one who desires to be lifted into 
the sweet, warm atmosphere of commun- 
ion with Christ must use the wings of fer- 
vent prayer. Those who make it their 
8 



jc? BEULAH-LAND. 

business to battle down besetting sins, and 
to build themselves up in Bible holiness, 
cannot make headway without constant lay- 
ing hold of the promises of divine strength. 
Prayer keeps us in the love of Jesus ; and 
while keeping in that warm, pure, healthy 
atmosphere we find that praying has won- 
derful power. Jesus told his disciples that 
if they would only abide in his love they 
might ask what they would " and it shall 
be done unto you !" Then, my good friend, 
do you want to be happy ? Do you want 
to have power with God and peace with 
yourself ? Do you want to get some in- 
stalment of heaven in advance ? There is 
only one sure way, and that is to live in 
the light-giving, warmth-giving sunshine of 
your Saviour's love. 



THE LORD'S SHUT-INS. jp 



7. THE LORD'S SHUT-INS. 

Just why the loving Master confines 
some of his choicest and best in rooms of 
suffering, and cripples others of them in 
body or in purse, we cannot always tell. 
One thing is very clear, and that is that 
he does not mean to cripple their useful- 
ness. To speak for Christ or to work for 
Christ is often easy and pleasant ; but 
to bear for Christ either pain, or poverty, 
or confinement, with courageous patience, 
is more eloquent than many a pulpit dis- 
course. No portion of Paul's wonderful 
career was productive of more solid results 
than the years of his imprisonment at 
Rome. He styled himself an "ambassa- 
dor in chains," and he preached the king- 



60 BEULAH-LAND. 

dom of God to those about him until there 
were many converts in " Caesar's house- 
hold." He wrote seven of his thirteen 
undisputed epistles while he was the prison 
chaplain under the eyes of Nero's jailers. 
One of these was the letter to Philippi, 
which is the epistle of gratitude for divine 
mercies and of exultant joy under sharp 
afflictions. 

If the cages of birds are sometimes cov- 
ered up in order to make them sing, the 
old hero was caged to furnish to the world 
one of its most melodious epics of sublime 
faith in Jesus. Satan afterwards clapped 
John Bunyan into a prison, and lo, out of 
the windows of the Bedford jail floated the 
transcendent allegory of the " Pilgrim's 
Progress " ! 

The service of Jesus Christ is not lim- 
ited by any stress of circumstances. A 
sick chamber has often been made a cho- 



THE LORD'S SHUT-INS, 61 

sen spot for glorifying God. The celebra- 
ted Halyburton of Scotland welcomed 
scores of visitors to that room in St. An- 
drew's where they stood around his bed- 
side and listened to words that seemed to 
be inspired by a glimpse of heaven from 
the land of Beulah. None of his previous 
sermons equalled his discoursings from 
that bed of suffering. " This is the best 
pulpit," said he, " that I was ever in. I am 
laid on this bed for this very end, that I 
may commend my Lord." He called it a 
shaking hands with* the King of Terrors. 
After a night of agonizing pain he said to 
his wife, "Jesus came to me in the third 
watch of the night, walking upon the wa- 
ters ; and he said to me, ' I am Alpha and 
Omega, the beginning and the end, and I 
have the keys of death.' He stilled the 
tempest in my soul, and there is a great 
calm. I have ripened fast under the bright 



62 BEULAH-LAND. 

sun of righteousness, and had brave show- 
ers. Now I am thinking of the pleasant 
spot of earth that I will soon get to lie in ; 
I will get my little Georgie in my hand, 
and we will be a group of bonnie dust'' 
After his voice failed him in the last mo- 
ments he continued to clap his hands in 
triumph. 

It is not only by such joyful testimonies 
to the sustaining power of divine grace, or 
by cheerful patience, that the prisoners of 
Jesus Christ have preached and are preach- 
ing his precious gospel. There are many 
ways of doing good open to invalids. Dur- 
ing the years that the wife of Charles H. 
Spurgeon was confined to her room she 
conceived the plan of providing commen- 
taries and useful books for poor ministers 
and village preachers. She told me that 
over one hundred thousand such volumes 
had been secured in response to her ap- 



THE LORD'S SHUT-INS. 63 

peals. When I visited her last summer in 
the beautiful old home at " Westwood " I 
found that she was cheering the lonely 
hours of her widowhood by continuing this 
labor of love. Some of Charlotte Elliott's 
sweetest hymns, in England, and some of 
the best productions of Mrs. Paull, in our 
own land, have been written during periods 
of confinement in the chamber of an inva- 
lid. A large-hearted lady, shut in from her 
former activities out-of-doors, spends much 
of her time in folding and addressing little 
leaflets of awakening or of consoling truth 
to those who may be profited by them. 
In many a house there is a room whose 
silent, influence is felt all over the dwell- 
ing. The other members of the family 
come there to inquire after the sufferer* 
to bring some choice fruit or pleasant gift, 
to read aloud, or watch with her through 
the lonesome night. From that room 



64 BEULAH-LAND. 

steals forth an influence that makes every 
one gentler and tenderer and more unself- 
ish. Perhaps this may be one of the 
reasons why God permits some of his 
children to suffer; they not only grow 
purer by the chastening, but become evan- 
gelists of blessing to others. Paul in his 
prison prompted many besides Onesiphor- 
us to deeds of sympathy for him, and he 
evoked such deeds of kindness from his 
spiritual children at Philippi that he writes 
to them that their love " hath blossomed out 
afresh." That is the literal rendering of 
the message sent by the old, sunny-souled 
prisoner of Jesus Christ. The Master 
takes great delight in many of his shut-ins. 
They are weaving bright coronals for them- 
selves, to be worn in that land in which 
none shall say " I am sick," and neither 
shall there be any more pain. 



JESUS CLOSE B Y US, 65 



8. JESUS CLOSE BY US. 

11 Make Christ your constant compan- 
ion," says my brilliant Scotch friend, Prof. 
Drummond, in one of those practical ad- 
dresses which he is scattering like golden 
grain over our land. This is the secret 
of a strong, serene and sanctified life. 
" Lo, I a<m with you always " is his precious 
promise ; and he is the happiest and the 
holiest Christian who invites the Master to 
be ever at his side, and who is becoming 
more and more changed into his image. 

The godly-minded Charles Simeon, of 
Cambridge, England, kept a portrait of 
the missionary, Henry Martyn, hanging 
on the wall of his study. Looking up at 
the bright, youthful face, he would often 
9 



66 BEULAH-LAND. 

say, " There, see that blessed man. No 
one looks at me as he does. He seems 
always to be saying to me, * Be serious, be 
earnest, don't trifle.' " Then bowing to- 
ward the benign countenance of Martyn, 
Simeon would add, " No, I wont. I wont 
trifle." If the good Cambridge preacher 
caught a constant inspiration by looking 
at the silent face of the great missionary, 
how much more may we do so by keeping 
our Saviour constantly before us and be- 
side us. He is ever saying to us, Look at 
me, learn of me, live for me ! 

Sometimes a smooth-tongued tempta- 
tion assails us, and when we are wavering 
a sight of Him who conquered the great 
adversary breaks upon us, and we get the 
grace to drive the tempter from us. Some- 
times we are inclined to shirk a disagree- 
able duty or hard task that goes against 
the grain. How promptly our Master's 



JESUS CLOSE B V US. 67 

voice is heard, " Whosoever will not take 
up his cross, and come after me, is not 
worthy of me." At another time our 
spirits are sinking down towards zero 
under discouragement or disappointment. 
Just then the loving countenance draws 
up very close and we catch the cheering 
words, " Let not your heart be troubled; I 
am with you; my grace is sufficient for 
you." When we are tempted to bolt out 
a hot resentful word, or to practise some 
shabby subterfuge, the sorrowful counte- 
nance whispers in our ears, " Wound me not 
in the house of my friends." And when 
we have come back ashamed and crest- 
fallen from some cowardly desertion of the 
right, or some compromise with conscience, 
oh, how that eye which fell upon skulking 
Peter seems to say to us, " Will ye also go 
away? Could ye not watch with me one 
hour?" Evermore is that divine Master 



68 BEULAH-LAND. 

and Monitor not far from every one of us, 
watching every step, rebuking every lapse, 
chiding every delay, and arousing us to 
every fresh call to duty or grapple with the 
many-headed devil of selfishness. 

Prayer has a new stimulus and encour- 
agement if we realize that Jesus is close by 
us. He is within call. The telephone is 
one of the marvels of modern invention, 
bringing a whole community within speak- 
ing distance of each other. Yet it has its 
defects and limitations ; it may be out of 
order, or be in use by some long-winded 
customer, or the ear may be wanting at 
the other end of the wire. But the tele- 
phone of faith always reaches the open ear 
of our beloved Lord ; yea, a million voices 
may all be addressing him at once without 
delay and without confusion. He is nigh 
unto all that call upon him : no need of 
sending forth a messenger on a long jour- 



JESUS CLOSE BY US. 69 

ney. The very phraseology of his promise 
recalls the familiar process of telephoning : 
" Thou shalt call and the Lord will an- 
swer ; thou shalt cry,and he shall say, Here 
I am." In every phase of prayer, whether 
confession of sin, or offering thanks, or 
supplicating help, this blessed near-at- 
handness of Jesus is a precious encour- 
agement. His seeming delays are not de- 
nials of us ; he may be only testing our 
faith or our sincerity. Do not let us think 
of prayer so often as the coaxing or the 
conquering of a reluctant friend, but ra- 
ther as the confident appeal to One who 
is always wise, and always willing to give 
us what we ought to have. 

Not only is our loving Master within 
call ; he is ever within our reach. A very 
present help is he in time of trouble. Peter 
sinking in the waves cries out, " Lord, 
save me!" and immediately the almighty 



70 BEULAH-LAND. 

arm grasps his. While all others on board 
the tempest-tossed ship were smitten with 
panic, Paul has One by his side who says 
to him, "Fear not, Paul; thou must be 
brought before Caesar." And soon after- 
ward, when the weather-beaten old hero 
faces the savage Nero with cheek un- 
blanched, it is because the Lord Jesus 
stood with him and strengthened him. One 
of the chief purposes of trial and affliction 
is to make us send for our Saviour. If 
the famine had not reached to the land of 
Canaan the sons of Jacob never would 
have found their brother Joseph. If there 
is no famine in our souls we do not hun- 
ger for Christ ; blessed be the sharp trial 
which impels us to throw out a grasping 
hand on our Elder Brother! 

A peculiar trial sometimes besets us. 
We are perplexed with the mysteries of 
providence and have an intense craving 



JESUS CLOSE BY US. 71 

for some explanation. We long for com- 
plete knowledge — on the spot. The di- 
vine dealings with us are dark and incom- 
prehensible. At such times if we will but 
listen we wall hear a Voice saying to us, 
" I am with you ; what I am doing thou 
understandest not now, but thou shalt 
know hereafter." And so we discover that 

" Behind the dim unknown 
Standeth Christ within the shadow 
Keeping watch above his own." 

How encouraging is the thought to 
every awakened sinner that he need not 
go off searching after a Saviour and feel- 
ing after him in the dark ! Jesus is already 
at thy heart's door, my friend. He is 
knocking for admission. Let him in ! He 
will come to stay. 

Some of us have known lately how close 
the loving Jesus is in a dying chamber. 



72 BEULAH-LAND. 

In one house the little song-bird of the 
family was gasping for life, and Christ just 
opened the cage and let the darling soar 
up to the sunny climes. A beloved 
daughter lay dying ; but the Master gen- 
tly said, "She is not dying, she only sleep- 
eth; so give I my beloved sleep." Our 
gray-haired father or mother is entering 
the valley of the death-shade; and the 
calm testimony of their trust is : " I fear 
no evil, for thou art with me ; thy rod 
and thy staff they comfort me." 



SONGS IN THE NIGHT. 7j 



9. SONGS IN THE NIGHT. 

We always think of our Lord and Sa- 
viour as a divine teacher, preacher, and 
worker of w r ondrous miracles; we seldom 
or never think of him as a singer. Yet 
there is every probability that on one occa- 
sion his voice joined in a service of sacred 
song ; and he may have done this on other 
occasions. On that night when he had 
eaten the paschal supper with his disci- 
ples, and delivered his last loving dis- 
course to them, " they sang a hymn " ; and 
we may well suppose that the Masters 
voice blended with theirs. The hymn 
usually sung at the close of the passover 
supper was that majestic old Hebrew song 

of praise beginning with the words, " Oh, 
10 



74 BEULAH-LAND. 

give thanks unto the Lord, for he is good ; 
for his mercy endureth for ever." Geth- 
semane, the betrayal, and the awful con- 
flict in the garden were just before him ; 
yet our Master set us the sublime example 
of a " song in the night " — and that, too, 
the darkest night he had ever known on 
earth. 

A few years afterward Paul and Silas 
are confined in a stifling dungeon at 
Philippi — their backs lacerated with the 
scourgings of their brutal persecutors. 
Instead of wails and groans, the two he- 
roes break forth into such a triumphal 
burst of sacred song that their fellow- 
prisoners are awakened by the extraordi- 
nary duet! Paul must have been as famil- 
iar with the old Hebrew psalmody as our 
soldiers were with their war songs around 
the camp-fires. It was a glorious triumph 
of spiritual exultation over bodily tortures, 



SONGS IN THE NIGHT. 73 

when, in the black gloom of that mid- 
night, 

' ' Paul and Silas, in their prison, 
Sang of Christ the Lord arisen/' 

In these experiences of our Lord and of 
his two apostles there were literal songs in 
the night ; and they were the antetypes of 
thousands of Christian experiences in all 
subsequent times. It has always been the 
test of the deepest and the strongest faith 
that, like the nightingale, it could pour 
forth its sweetest melodies in the hours of 
darkness. This is a spiritual phenomenon, 
not to be explained by ordinary natural 
law. It is supernatural. The Bible tells 
us that " God our Maker giveth songs in 
the night" This happy phrase explains 
itself. It means that in times of sorest 
affliction our Heavenly Father gives to 
his faithful children cause for songs — both 
the matter to sing about and the spirit of 



76 BEULAH-LAND. 

grateful praise. While they are sitting 
under the shadow of severe trial he can 
wrap them about with " the garment of 
praise " and fill their mouths with singing. 
While selfishness is fretting, and unbelief 
is blaspheming, faith has a voice of its 
own — pitched to a high key of love and 
trust, and gratitude and holy joy. That 
old-time saint had caught this pitch when 
he sang : " Although the fig-tree shall not 
blossom, neither shall fruit be on the vines, 
and the field shall yield no meat, yet I will 
rejoice in the Lord ; I will joy in the God 
of my salvation." You cannot starve a 
man who is feeding on God's promises; 
and you cannot make any man or woman 
wretched who has a clean conscience, and 
the smile of God, and the love of Jesus 
shed abroad in the soul. 

What a thrilling outbreak of triumphant 
faith was that which came from the brave 



SONGS IN THE NIGHT. 77 

old Thomas Halyburton of Scotland in 
the darkest hours of his bereavement! 
When a much loved son was taken away 
he makes this record : " This day has been 
a day to be remembered. Oh, my soul, 
never forget what this day I reached. My 
soul had smiles that almost wasted nature. 
Oh, what a sweet day. About half-an-hour 
after the Sabbath, my child, after a sharp 
conflict, slept pleasantly in Jesus, to whom 
pleasantly he was so often given." His 
own fatal sickness was very protracted, 
and was attended with intense suffering. 
After a night of excruciating pain he said 
to his wife, " Jesus came to me in the 
third watch of the night, walking upon the 
waters, and he said to me, ' I am Alpha 
and Omega, the beginning and the end, 
and I have the keys of hell and of death.' 
He stilled the tempest in my soul, and lo! 
there was a great calm." A philosopher 



78 BEULAH-LAND. 

of the Hume and Huxley school would be 
likely to dismiss all this as a devout dream 
of an excited imagination. But Halybur- 
ton was a hard-headed professor of theolo- 
gy in a Scotch university — not a style of 
man easily carried away by the illusions 
of a distempered fancy. " Thou art be- 
side thyself," said the pagan Festus to the 
acutely logical apostle who wrote what 
Coleridge pronounced to be the most pro- 
found production in existence. 

No sceptic's sneers can explain such 
spiritual phenomena. When men of the 
calibre of St. Paul sing such " songs in 
the night " as he sent forth from Cesar's 
pretorian guardhouse, they cannot be ex- 
plained on any theory of frigid psychology. 
While dark hours of calamity or bereave- 
ment bring to the ordinary man of the 
world distress and peevish complaints, 
they bring to a Christ-possessed soul tran- 



SONGS IN THE NIGHT. 79 

quil submission, and often an uplift of 
triumphant joy. Such experiences are 
contrary to the ordinary course of nature. 
They can only be accounted for by that 
deeper and divine philosophy which makes 
God to be the direct personal comforter 
of his own people in their season of sore 
affliction. When they pass through val- 
leys of the death-shadow it is his rod and 
his staff that support them. The path of 
trial may lead down into grim and gloomy 
gorges that no sunbeams of nature pene- 
trate ; but " Thou art with me " is the 
cheerful song that faith sings along the 
darksome road. As Maclaren beautifully 
says : " He who guides into the gorge will 
guide through the gorge ; it is not a cul 
de sac shut in with precipices at the far 
end; but it opens out on shining table- 
lands where there is a greener pasturage." 
There are some of us old-fashioned 



So BEULAH-LAND. 

Christians who still believe that a loving 
God creates dark nights as well as bright 
noondays ; that he not only permits trou- 
ble, but sometimes sends troubles on his 
own children for their spiritual profit. 
As many as he loves he sometimes cor- 
rects and chastens, and a truly filial faith 
recognizes that all his dealings are per- 
fectly right. " Happy is the man whom 
God correcteth ; therefore despise not 
thou the chastening of the Almighty." I 
havs seen a farmer drive his ploughshare 
through a velvet greensward, and it looked 
like a harsh and cruel process; but the 
farmers eye foresaw the springing blades 
of wheat, and that within a few months 
that torn soil would laugh with a golden 
harvest. Deep soul-ploughings bring rich 
fruits of the Spirit. I have often had 
occasion to tell my parishoners that there 
are bitter mercies as well as sweet mer- 



SONGS IN THE NIGHT. 81 

cies ; but they are all mercies, whether 
given to us in honey or given in worm- 
wood. 

The day is God's and the night also. 
This is as true in the realm of grace as 
in the realm of nature. God orders the 
withdrawal of the sun at evening time, yet 
that very withdrawal reveals new glories 
in the midnight sky. Then, how the crea- 
tion widens to our view ! The stars that 
lay concealed behind the noontide rays 
rush out and fill the spangled canopy. So 
in the night seasons which often descend 
upon the Christian, fresh glories of the 
divine love are revealed, fresh power is 
given to our faith, fresh victories are won, 
and a new development is made of godly 
character. What sweet voices — like " the 
influences of the Pleiades "—are God's 
promises to our chastened hearts ! What 
deep melodies of praise do the night hours 



82 BEULAH-LAND. 

hear! The Lord commandeth his loving 
kindness in the daytime, and in the night 
his song shall be with me. 

I trust that these simple, honest words 
may come as a lamp into some sick cham- 
ber, or into some house of sorrow, or into 
some sorely-troubled hearts. Bethany had 
to become a dark town to two poor women 
before Jesus could flood it with joy. Be- 
fore Gethsemane's midnight struggle Christ 
himself chanted a hymn ; and happy is the 
man or woman who can go into life's hard 
battle singing! The ear of God hears no 
sublimer music than a Christian's songs 
in the night. 



WAITING ON GOD. 83 



10. WAITING ON GOD. 

" They that wait on the Lord shall 
renew their strength. They shall mount 
up with wings as eagles." This passage 
from the old Jewish prophet has the ring 
of an Alpine horn. It is very easy to mis- 
understand this word " wait/' and regard 
it as meaning inactive passivity. There 
is a vast deal of nerve in the original He- 
brew; it signifies to be strong enough to 
hold out. It expresses a solid endurability 
such as belongs to a stiff piece of oak 
that never bends and never breaks under 
heavy pressure. Thence the word came 
to signify patience as opposed to worry 
and despondency. Waiting, in this oft- 
quoted text, denotes a habit of mind — a 
devout habit that loves to call on God, a 



84 BEULAH-LAND. 

submissive habit that is ready to receive 
just what God sees fit to send, an obedi- 
ent habit that is glad to do just what God 
commands, a stalwart habit of carrying 
such loads as duty lays upon our backs. 
It is a religion of conscience, and not a 
mere effervescence of pious emotion. In 
short, it is a grace, just as much as the 
grace of faith, or love, or humility. 

If you and I have this grace, and if we 
practice it, what may we expect? The 
first thing is that God will " renew our 
strength." For every new occasion, every 
new trial, every new labor, we shall get 
new power. If we have failed, or have 
been foiled, God will put us on our feet 
again. The spiritually weak will gain 
strength, and those who were strong be- 
fore will wax stronger. I have often gone 
to Saratoga in the heat of early summer, 
quite run down, and my vitality burned 



WAITING ON GOD. $j 

out as coal gets exhausted in the bunkers 
of a steamer. Then I repaired to one of 
the tonic springs and " waited " on its 
bubbling waters, trusting them and taking 
them into my system. Presently a new 
appetite for food was awakened, and a 
new life crept into my ten fingers ; walk- 
ing became a delight and preaching as 
easy as for a lark to sing. All this re- 
newal of vitality was the result of waiting 
on one of those wonderful health-fountains. 
I brought but little there. I took a great 
deal away. Just such a well of spiritual 
force is the Lord Jesus Christ. Coming 
to him in a receptive, suppliant, hunger- 
ing spirit, he restores our souls, he heals 
our sickness, he girds up our weak will 
as with steel, he infuses iron into our 
blood, he makes our feet like hinds ' feet ; 
we can run without getting weary. Paul 
had put himself into just such a connec- 



86 BEULAH-LAND. 

tion with the Source of all power when 
he exclaimed, " I can do all things through 
Christ that strengtheneth me." 

All the men and women of power are 
men and women of prayer. They have 
the gift of the knees. " Waiting on the 
Lord" by prayer has the same effect on 
them that it has on an empty bucket to 
set it under a rainspout. They get filled. 
The time spent in waiting upon God is 
not wasted time. " I have so much to 
do," said Martin Luther, "that I cannot 
get on with less than two hours a day in 
praying." When I have heard Spurgeon 
pray I have not been so astonished at 
some of his discourses. He fed his lamp 
with oil from the King's vessels, and his 
sermons were full of light. 

Waiting on God not only gives strength, 
it gives inspiration. " They shall mount 
up with wings as eagles." God means 



WAITING ON GOD. 87 

that every soul which waits on him shall 
not creep in the muck and the mire, nor 
crouch in abject slavery to men or devils. 
When a soul has its inner life hid with 
Christ and lives a life of true consecration 
it is enabled to take wing, and its " citizen- 
ship is in heaven." He catches inspira- 
tion ; he gains wide outlooks ; he breathes 
a clear and crystalline atmosphere. He 
outflies many of the petty vexations and 
grovelling desires that drag a worldling 
down into the mire. What cares the eagle 
as he bathes his wing in the translucent 
gold of the upper sky for all the turmoil, 
the dust, or even the murky clouds that 
drift far beneath him ? He flies in com- 
pany with the sun. So a heaven-bound 
soul flies in company with God. 

You may gain all this strength and 
reach these altitudes of the Christian life, 
my friend, if you will wait steadily on God 



88 BEULAH-LAND. 

and knit your soul's affections fast to Jesus 
Christ. You will find a wonderful lift in 
your religion. You will be delighted to 
find what power it has to carry you clear 
of low, base, grovelling desires, and to in- 
spire high ambitions and holy thoughts. 
It will kindle joy in the darkest hours of 
affliction, and keep you as serene as the 
stars which no storm-clouds can ever reach. 
Try all this for yourself. Quit waiting on 
your fellow-men's opinions and rules and 
ways of living, and try waiting on God. 
Try the wings of prayer. Set your affec- 
tions on things above, and insure your 
heart's best treasures by lodging them in 
heaven. 

Keeping thus the Godward side of your 
life clear and strong, your religion will 
be all the stronger on its manward side. 
The celestial springs will brighten and 
fertilize and refresh the lowly valleys of 



WAITING ON GOD. 8g 

your every-day existence. Christ will be 
with you every day in your home, in your 
business, in your fields, in your shop, in 
your humblest toils. Christ will sweeten 
your daily cup. His love will lighten 
every cross and every care. Do n't expect 
to get to heaven before your time; wait 
on the Lord down here. 

"The daily round, the common task, 
Will furnish all we ought to ask : 
Room to deny ourselves — a road 
To bring us daily nearer God." 



12 



go BEULAH-LAND. 



11. PURITAN HOMES AND THANKSGIVING 

DAYS. 

There is a rivulet of Yankee blood in 
my veins through the line of the Led- 
yards ; and I am not ashamed of my kin- 
ship with either the hero who defended 
Fort Griswold, or the other hero who 
tracked his way into Siberia and died, 
like Livingstone, while trying to explore 
the Dark Continent. Part of my school 
days were spent (in the Cayuga Lake 
region of New York) among a colony from 
Berkshire County, Mass. How proud 
they were of their nativity in the most 
picturesque county of New England ! 
How eagerly they welcomed every letter 
from Lee or Lenox or Barrington ! How 
devoutly they cherished every custom of 



PURITAN HOMES. gi 

their Puritan ancestors ! They " opened 
their windows " towards old Berkshire, as 
exiled Daniel did his towards the city on 
Mount Zion. 

I boarded in the family of a primitive 
Yankee deacon — such as Mrs. Stowe has 
limned in her best portraitures. The hon- 
est old saint was no more troubled with 
any doubts about the Pentateuch than 
about the sun rising " on time " ; he no 
more dreamed of any New Departure in 
theology than he did of going out to 
plough on a Sabbath morning. His gos- 
pel milk never curdled. True to the an- 
cient traditions, he " kept Saturday night," 
for he held that the Lords Sabbath began 
with the sunset on the previous evening. 
Promptly at the minute all secular work 
was laid aside ; even his venerable wife put 
away her knitting-needles; the " chores " 
were all finished up, and the family gath- 



g2 BEULAH-LAND. 

ered around the hickory fire for a genu- 
ine domestic worship. Good books were 
read — stiff, marrowy books they were too, 
and no modern syllabubs — and before the 
serene and solemn evening closed the pa- 
triarch opened Scott's family Bible, and, as 
Burns says, he "waled a portion with judi- 
cious care." After reading the text he 
read the practical observations also; then, 
in his prayer, he came into close grips 
and wrestled with God. The Sabbath in 
that household — yes, and in almost every 
household of the village — was kept, and 
so stoutly hemmed was it that it never 
raveled out into unseemly frivolities. 

The village meeting-house (it was not 
the fashion to call it " church "), to which 
everybody went, was a plain structure, and 
the square, high-backed pews were guiltless 
of paint or damask. Half-way up the wall 
was perched the pulpit, like a martin box. 



PURITAN HOMES. gj 

The village pastor — whose name, Seth 
Smith, was as severely simple as his cos- 
tume — ascended to his perch by a winding 
stair. On bitter winter days he kept on his 
camlet cloak and knit woolen mittens until 
he warmed up to his work. As for the 
mothers in Israel, they kept their feet from 
freezing by foot-stoves well stocked with 
hickory coals. The discourse was no light 
diet of condiments and confectionery; it 
was strong, solid, substantial meat, as 
homely and braw 7 n-making as the pork and 
beans which furnished the family dinner. 
Bible doctrine was the backbone of the 
sermon, and it was served warm. That 
godly minister of the Word preached the 
Word — preached it without defalcation or 
discount, and preached as if the surges of 
eternity were rolling against the church 
door. He believed in heaven, and he be- 
lieved in a hell ; they both seemed close at 



94 BEULAH-LAND. 

hand — as close by as the tombs of the vil- 
lagers who slumbered around the sanctu- 
ary. Nor did any impenitent soul go out 
from before that pulpit with any such de- 
lusion as that he would have another 
chance for repentance after his own bones 
were laid in that churchyard. Often there 
was sweetness in the sermons also, as 
well as strength — honey out of Samson's 
lion — the sweetness of the Christian's 
promises and sweet glimpses of the saint's 
everlasting rest. After the services ended 
we all went homeward, well stocked with 
Bible and Catechism ; and the family din- 
ner was eaten as the sun was wheeling 
into the west. When his last rays de- 
parted the holy hours were ended, and the 
Sunday evening was spent in secular read- 
ing, or in a visit to a neighbor's, where the 
day's sermon was discussed, and the latest 
news from old Berkshire. Oh, the blessed 



PURITAN HOMES. pj 

old Puritan Sabbaths ! Will they ever 
come back again ? Strict they were, no 
doubt, and because our forefathers wor- 
shipped a strict God : severe they were in 
some of their restraints on carnal appe- 
tites, and lacking in some pleasant things 
they ought to have had, but they were a 
glorious discipline; they girded our loins 
with mighty truths, they put iron into our 
blood, they made the men and women that 
have made the backbone of American 
character. 

Of course, in such a Yankee commun- 
ity the annual Thanksgiving Day was the 
chief festival of the year. It was more 
jubilant than Christmas, more impressive 
than New-Year's Day ; it was the king- 
day of the calendar. Afar its coming 
shone. We boys counted the time until 
its approach. The night before was a sad 
time in all the barnyards and turkey-cotes 



q6 BEULAH-LAND. 

and chicken-roosts ; for the slaughter was 
terrible, and the cry of the feathered tribe 
was like the " mourning of Hadadrim- 
mon." For that Thanksgiving service 
the village pastor made diligent prepara- 
tion, and the choir rehearsed their finest 
" fugues " and most resonant anthems. 
For that Thanksgiving dinner the house- 
wife tasked her culinary skill ; it was the 
feast of fat things, the masterpiece of do- 
mestic gastronomy, at which the most 
rigid Puritanism ate, drank, and was mer- 
ry. Children and grandchildren, kith and 
kindred, gathered to these festivities in 
the old homestead ; for, as in the times of 
David at Bethlehem, " there was a yearly 

sacrifice there for all the family.'' 

These two days, the weekly Sabbath 
and the annual Thanksgiving Day, have 
been the type-days of the best era of New 
England. They were typical of the no- 



P URITAN HOMES, g? 

blest traits of New England character. 
Reverence for Jehovah, faith in his Word 
to the uttermost syllable, loyalty to law, 
cheerfulness under adversities and in a 
hard fight for daily bread, often out of a 
stubborn soil — a sturdy life sweetened by 
fireside joys — all these were the fruitage 
of the Puritan home. It was the real 
training-school for both church and com- 
monwealth. Both patriotism and piety 
rooted under those hearth-stones. 

If any one wants to see a fair picture 
of the Puritan homes threescore and four- 
score years ago, let him read Dr. Horace 
Bushnell's Age of Homespun (delivered 
at the Litchfield County Centennial), or 
Lyman Beecher's autobiography, or, best 
of all, that charming tract in which Father 
Goodell described the rustic cabin in which 
he was born and bred. The house had 

no paint on its clap-boards, no carpet on 
13 



gS BEULAH-LAND. 

its floor, and no lock on a single door. 
But a godly mother sang hymns at her 
spinning-wheel, and every acre of the farm 
was prayed over as well as plowed over ; 
the Thanksgiving meal had the sweet 
smell of the field which God had blessed. 
" Those royal men and women of home- 
spun I" exclaims Bushnell. " How great 
a thing to them was religion ! the district 
school was there, and the great Bellamy 
and Edwards were there in the mountain 
peaks of divine government, and between 
them are close living and hard work, but 
they are kings alike in all I" 

In those Puritan homes the American 
Board of Foreign Missions was nurtured ; 
its early heroes were trained there. From 
those homes went out the pioneers who 
rang the first church bells in the great- 
West. Wedlock had not lost its sanctity 
in those homes, nor had the filthy facilities 



PURITAN HOMES. gg 

of divorce laws rotted off the tie. Ortho- 
dox faith was so anchored to Bible and 
catechism that it did not drift into new 
departures. 

To recall that steel-bright and strong- 
stitched era of New England life is a 
wholesome memory and study. It may 
quicken the old flames, and renew the old 
faith. The nation looks to the Land of 
Puritans yet ; and if Plymouth Rock gives 
way we shall all go down — and other lands 
may be dragged down with us ! 



ioo BEULAH-LAND. 



12. A PRECIOUS FAITH. 

There is a legend that a traveller over 
the desert who was nearly perishing w r ith 
hunger came upon the spot where a com- 
pany had lately encamped. Searching 
about for some article of food, he found 
a small bag which he hoped might be a 
bag of dates. Opening it, he discovered 
that it contained shells and silver coins. 
Throwing it down, in bitter disappoint- 
ment, he exclaimed, " Alas ! it is nothing 
but money !" A single date or a fig would 
have been worth more to him then than a 
chest-full of gold. There is a time com- 
ing to all of us when we would gladly 
surrender the wealth of the whole w r orld 
for what an apostle once called "a like 
precious faith." 



A PRECIOUS FAITH. 101 

Peter was partial to this word, precious ; 
it is one of the ear-marks to establish the 
identity of authorship in the two Epistles 
which bear his name. He speaks of the 
precious blood of Christ, of a precious 
cornerstone, of the precious trial of our 
faith, and of precious and exceeding great 
promises. Among this jewel-cluster there 
is none more full of meaning than when 
he speaks of " them that have obtained a 
like precious faith with us in the right- 
eousness of our God and Saviour Jesus 
Christ." (New 7 Revision.) 

Faith is confiding trust. " Ah, but my 
faith was anything but precious to me," 
says some one, " for I trusted a man who 
wronged me out of thousands of dollars." 
Your faith, my friend, was not a wrong 
principle, but you bestowed it on the 
wrong person. His worthlessness made 
the trust worthless. Without mutual con- 



io2 BEULAH-LAND. 

fidence all the sweetest intercourse of 
domestic life and all the operations of 
trade would come to an instant halt. If 
faith in one another is so indispensable 
to the ordinary transactions of life, faith 
in the divine Redeemer is indispensable 
to our salvation. It is the very core of 
Bible-religion. 

But this saving faith is vastly more 
than a good opinion about Christ, or a 
belief in Christ. Multitudes of intelligent 
sinners have this. Saving faith is not 
only a confidence in the atoning Saviour ; 
it is a strong grasp of this Saviour and a 
union of heart and life to him. It is the 
act of trust by which I, a person, unite 
myself to another person, even to the Son 
of God. It is unspeakably precious, be- 
cause it is the source of all my spiritual 
life. No grace until that grace comes. 
Faith drives the nail which fastens me 



A PRECIOUS FAITH. ioj 

to Jesus, and then loves clinches it ; faith 
ties the knot, and true love makes it tight- 
er and stronger every hour. 

i. Faith is precious because it is the 
channel of connection through which Jesus 
pours the life stream into my soul. The 
value of the channel is what it brings to 
me. The lead pipe which passes from 
the street in under my house may be 
worth only a few cents a pound, but the 
water it conducts is the life of my family. 
Christ dwells in our hearts only through 
faith. The cause of drought in a Chris- 
tian or in a church is that sin has ob- 
structed the faith-pipe, and Christ is shut 
off. A revival, or a re-living, means a 
clearing out of the spiritual channel. 

2. The preciousness of faith lies also 
in its protection from deadly adversaries. 
We read of the " shield of faith," but it 
has been well said that Christ is the ac- 



104 BE ULAH-LAND. 

tual shield, and faith is only the grasping 
arm which holds it up before us. A false 
faith inspires a false security. Right there 
lies the awful danger of many in our con- 
gregations. They are trusting in their 
own morality, or in their good associa- 
tions, or perhaps in the popular delusion 
of a second probation after death. Christ 
is the actual Protector. His presence 
barricades my heart from the assaults of 
the tempter. His strength is made perfect 
in and for our weakness. 

3. Precious is this Christ-faith, also, be- 
cause it imparts power. As a principle 
of action throughout all human history 
faith has been the inspiration of progress. 
The human mind is at its best and strong- 
est when under this inspiration, whether 
it be elevating Galileo's telescope, or steer- 
ing Columbus' pinnace, or trailing Morse's 
and Field's telegraph-cable through stormy 



A PRECIOUS FAITH. ioj 

seas. The moment that the man with 
the withered arm exercised faith in Christ 
the divine power shot into that paralyzed 
limb, and he lifted it. Faith calculates 
on this reserved strength, and is not afraid 
to essay difficult tasks. " I can do all 
things through Christ that strengthen- 
eth me." Here is the encouragement for 
young converts who propose to make a 
public confession of Christ ; they can cal- 
culate just as confidently on their Mas- 
ter's perpetual aid as they can on the 
rising of to-morrow's sun. 

4. What consolations too doth this 
precious faith afford! How it restores 
the balance between all the inequalities 
of life ! Are you poor ? Yes, but richer 
than Croesus with the uncountable riches 
of Christ. Have you met with a heavy 
loss ? Yes ; but you open the blessed 
Book and read that to you " are given 



io6 BE ULAH-LAXD. 

precious and exceeding great promises/' 
Suppose that you had received a letter 
announcing the loss of the money you 
were depending on for support. While 
you are reading it a generous friend hap- 
pens in who observes the sadness on your 
face, and asks to read the letter. When 
he has finished it he quietly remarks, 
" Do n't worry ; I '11 take care of this." 
Your countenance lights up in an instant. 
So the blessed Jesus draws up closely to 
the bereaved mother and whispers, " I 
have that precious child in my eternal 
keeping ;" so he says to the disheartened 
minister, " Go on and sow my gospel-seed 
and I will take care of the harvest ;" yea, 
in all the dark, trying hours faith trims 
her lamp with the oil of the promises 
which Jesus furnisheth. Heaven is as 
yet only a promise ; but to the believer 
it would not be one whit more a certain- 



A PRECIOUS FAITH. 107 

ty if his feet were already in the golden 
streets. 

5. This Christ-faith is so precious, also, 
because it is so costly. On Christ's part 
it cost Gethsemane's agony and Calvary's 
sacrifice. On our part it costs repentance 
of sin, self-surrender, the denial of greedy 
lusts and hard battles with temptation. 
A very hot furnace is often required to 
make its pure gold shine; and roaring 
tempests are often let loose in order to 
tighten the hold of its anchor. 



jo8 BEULAH-LAND. 



13. SEVEN JEWELS IN THE CHRISTIAN'S 
CASKET. 

What will I gain by loving and serving 
God ? That is a very legitimate question 
for any one to ask, and I find God's own 
answer to this vital question condensed 
into the few closing lines of the ninety- 
first Psalm. Here they are : " Because he 
hath set his love upon me, therefore will I 
deliver him : I will set him on high, be- 
cause he hath known my name. He shall 
call upon me, and I will answer him ; I 
will be with him in trouble ; I will deliver 
him, and honor him. With long life will 
I satisfy him, and show him my salvation." 
These are the seven rewards of a godly 
life. These are the seven jewels in the 
Christian's casket. Look at them, my 



SE VEN JE WELS. log 

reader, till you admire them ; look at them 
till you covet them and pray for the Holy 
Spirit to help you secure them ! These 
seven wonderful promises are made only 
to those who " set their love " on God. 
That means to give God your heart 
What will he do in return for you ? 

i. The first reward is deliverance from 
the dominion of sin and the power of the 
devil. Our pathway through this world is 
lined with temptations, and often the soil 
beneath us is honeycombed with explo- 
sives as dangerous as dynamite. Such 
temptations to fleshly lusts as beset Jos- 
eph and David, such temptations to cow- 
ardice as beset Daniel, and such tempta- 
tions to self-conceit as beset Peter, are to 
be encountered. Jesus Christ comes to 
the rescue. There is no condemnation to 
them that are in Christ Jesus. That means 
a pardon of sin so complete that it kisses 



no BEULAH-LAND. 

away the tears on the cheek of Penitence. 
That means a full salvation. The bigger 
the cup we bring the more it will hold. 
This rescuing work of our Saviour con- 
tinues all the way to heaven, and when we 
get there and see what a dangerous road 
we traveled, we will want to spend the 
first century in singing praises for his 
atoning blood and redeeming grace. Sup- 
pose that it were possible for us up there 
to get a distant glimpse of hell, how we 
would thrill with joy over our merciful 
deliverance ! 

2. The second blessing promised is se- 
curity. God says, " I will set him on 
high." Fortresses in olden times were 
built on lofty elevations ; and our God is 
the stronghold into which the righteous 
man runneth and is safe. When we em- 
brace Jesus Christ by faith, and join our 
weakness to his strength, we have a de- 



SEVEN JEWELS. in 

lightful sense of safety. We know whom 
we have believed, and are perfectly sure 
that he is able to keep that which we have 
committed to him. I once spent a night 
in the castellated convent of Mar Saba 
and heard the jackals howl in the gorge of 
the Kedron beneath us, and I saw the 
Bedouin prowling outside of the wall. So 
every child of God who is lodged in the 
stronghold of redemption may let Satan's 
jackals howl and let the adversary prowl as 
long as he will. We are safe while on the 
rock ; but God makes no promises to 
backsliders who wantonly wander away 
from the citadel. The history of every 
faithful Christian is full of special provi- 
dences. When a band of Scottish Cov- 
enanters were pursued by their enemies up 
into a mountain their leader prayed, " Oh, 
Lord, cast the lap o' thy cloak about puir 
old Saunders and these thy puir lambs I" 



U2 BEULAH-LANB. 

Immediately a thick mist fell and screened 
them from their pursuers. 

3. This brings us to the third precious 
promise : " He shall call upon me, and I 
will answer him." How closely these two 
words, " call " and " answer," come togeth- 
er ! — the prayer going up and the answer 
coming down. I do n't believe that a true 
Christian ever yet breathed a right prayer 
in a right spirit and received no answer. 
If we delight ourselves in the Lord he de- 
lights to give us the desires of our hearts. 
God loves to give to them who love to let 
him have his wise and loving way. When 
we ask for a blessing we must work for 
that blessing at the same time, or else the 
acts of our lives will contradict the utter- 
ances of our lips. What a glorious epic 
the triumph of victorious faith will make ! 
Prayer is faith's pull at the rope, and Spur- 
geon truly says that he who wins is the 



SE VEN JE WELS. % iij 

man who pulls boldly and continuously 
until the great bell rings in the ear of the 
Infinite Love. 

4. What music to the soul there is in 
the fourth promise : " I will be with him in 
trouble" ! God's people must take their 
share of this universal malady, for all men 
are born to it as certainly as the sparks fly 
upward. The first sound that escapes 
from the lips of infancy is a cry of want or 
pain ; the last sound on the dying bed is 
often a groan or a painful respiration. 
But under the aching heart and fainting 
spirit God puts the everlasting arm. Jesus 
declares to us, " In the world ye shall have 
tribulation ;" " in me ye shall have peace." 
It is not in the power of any amount of 
troubles to wreck the true Christian as 
long as his will is sweetly submissive to 
God's will. 

Blessed be the discipline that makes us 
15 



ii4 BEULAH-LAND. 

reach our soul's roots into closer union 
with Jesus ! Blessed be the gale that 
shakes down the golden fruit from our 
branches ! Sunshiny days often bring out 
adders; but in dark nights we look for 
him who comes over the billows with the 
cheerful hail : " Lo ! I am with you ; be 
not afraid !" 

5. The next promise is one of promo- 
tion : " I will honor him." How ? With 
wealth and wordly rank ? Not always ; 
but with something infinitely better. " I 
call you my friends," says the glorious Son 
of God. That approving smile of the Mas- 
ter gives an inward joy beyond any roar of 
earthly acclamations. " Them that confess 
me I will confess before my Father in 
heaven," When a marshal of France fell 
on the battlefield the emperor hung the 
grand cross of the Legion of Honor on his 
breast, and the old soldier died with a 



SEVEN JEWELS, u 5 

gleam of joy on his countenance. But 
what is that in comparison to the promise 
made to the humblest follower of Christ : 
11 Be thou faithful unto death, and I will 
give thee a crown of life " ! There will be 
some wonderful promotions up in heaven, 
when many a neglected sufferer from a 
hovel or an attic shall be called up into 
the royal family, and when some hard- 
toiling, ill-paid frontier missionary shall 
receive his sparkling diadem. Be of 
good cheer, brother, your turn will come. 
" Them that honor Me I will honor." We 
shall be kings and priests unto God. 

6. In those olden times length of days 
was regarded as a special evidence of the 
divine favor , and it is still true that obe- 
dience to God's laws written on the human 
body commonly lengthens life. But the 
promise, " With long life will I satisfy 
him," goes deeper than chronology. It 



n6 BEULAH-LAND. 

describes a life that is long enough to 
fulfil life's highest purpose. If you and I 
live long enough to do what God made us 
for, and Christ redeemed us for, ought not 
that to satisfy us? Who would ask for 
anything more? Life is measured by 
deeds, and not by hour marks on a dial. 
In the warm morning sun of grace many a 
young soul has grown fully ripe for a har- 
vest of glory. 

7. The last promise is the Kohinoor 
diamond of them all : " I will show him 
my salvation." This word does not signify 
the process of being saved; it signifies the 
result of being saved, and that is — life 
everlasting. The word translated " show " 
means to see with joy. He shall gaze with 
delight on the glory that is in store for 
him ; he can say : " As for me, I shall be- 
hold thy face in righteousness ; I shall be 
satisfied when I awake with thy likeness." 



SEVEN JEWELS. uy 

This last promise spans the chasm and 
reaches over into the magnificent inheri- 
tance of the saints in light. 

Once more let us tell over these jewel 
passages, rendered according to their most 
literal meaning : " Because a man falleth 
in love with me I will rescue him from 
danger. I will set him up on a stronghold 
because he knoweth my name. He shall 
call upon me, and I will answer his prayer. 
I am with him in every time of trouble. I 
will deliver him and honor him with my 
favor. He shall live long enough to be 
satisfied ; and then he will behold with joy 
his everlasting salvation." 

Here are seven precious promises of 
what a loving God will do for us. If, 
through Christ's redeeming and renewing 
grace, we reach that celestial home we shall 
see those fulfilled promises shining like the 
seven candlesticks before the throne. 



u8 BEULAH-LAND. 



14. MOTHERS IN ISRAEL. 

When the Hebrew matron called out to 
Joab from the walls of the beleaguered 
city of Abel, and exhorted him to spare 
the town and " a mother in Israel," she did 
more than she bargained for. She not 
only saved her own life, but she originated 
a fine proverbial expression which has con- 
stantly been applied to good women who 
have distinguished their maternity by a 
beautiful and godly influence. The holy- 
hearted Hannah heads the roll of these 
model mothers — the woman who dedicated 
her first-born son to God in those memo- 
rable words — " for this child I prayed, and 
the Lord hath given me my petition which 
I asked of him. Therefore I have lent 



MOTHERS IN ISRAEL. ng 

him to the Lord; as long as he liveth, he 
shall be lent to the Lord." Samuel also 
heads the roll of eminent servants of God 
who owed an incalculable debt to wise ma- 
ternal influence. 

What was true in ancient times has been 
true ever since. At the starting point of a 
vast majority of the best Christian lives 
stands a Christian mother. When I was 
a student in Princeton Theological Semi- 
nary the chairman of the examining board 
requested all of us who had praying mo- 
thers to rise up, and nearly the whole one 
hundred and fifty leaped instantly to their 
feet. There we stood, a living witness to 
the power of a mother's prayers and of her 
shaping influence and example. My own 
widowed mother was one of the best that 
God ever gave to an only son. She was 
more to me than school, or college, or pas- 
tor, or all combined. In our early rural 



120 BEULAH-LAND. 

home the first Sabbath-school I ever at- 
tended had but one scholar, and she was 
the superintendent ; the only book studied 
was Gods book, and committed to mem- 
ory. During my infancy she dedicated 
me to the Christian ministry, and kept that 
steadily before her own eye and mine, I 
cannot now fix the date of my conversion ; 
it was her constant influence that led me 
gradually along, and I grew into a religious 
life under her potent training, and by the 
power of the Holy Spirit working through 
her untiring agency. If all mothers were 
like her the " church in the house " would 
be one of the best feeders of the church in 
the public sanctuary. 

We ministers must not take on airs. 
There is a ministry that is older and deep- 
er and more potent than ours ; it is that 
ministry that presides over the crib, and 
impresses the first gospel influence upon 



MOTHERS IN ISRAEL. 121 

the infant soul. Before the pulpit begins 
or the Sunday-school begins the mother 
has already begun, and has been moulding 
the plastic wax of character for weal or 
woe, for heaven or hell. A prodigious 
power this; it is the same power which 
sent Samuel out of the godly home of 
Hannah and wicked Ahaziah out of the 
home of godless Jezebel. Both of them 
" walked in the way of his mother." Far 
be it from me to underrate the influence 
of fathers for good or evil. But still the 
fact remains that it is mainly the mother 
who shapes the home influence and im- 
parts to it its prevailing atmosphere ; for 
the most important part of moral education 
is atmospheric. The purity or impurity, the 
tonic or the demoralizing qualities of that 
atmosphere of the home, depend, for the 
most part, on the mother : the sovereign of 

the home. There is her throne ; there her 
16 



122 BEULAH-LAND. 

sway ; there she can make or mar the des- 
tiny of the immortal soul beyond any one 
this side of the throne of God. Among 
eminent living ministers none preaches the 
great vital doctrine of the atonement more 
powerfully than Dr, Newman Hall of Lon- 
don ; he almost idolized his mother, and 
has told me that the first words she ever 
taught him were, " God so loved the world 
that he gave his only-begotten Son." That 
text became the key-note of his grand 
ministry, and of his world-known tractate, 
" Come to Jesus." Susannah Wesley's 
hand rings all the Methodist church bells 
around the globe to-day. Suppose that 
Lord Byron had been reared by such a mo- 
ther as Newman Hall and the Wesleyshad; 
the world might have escaped the moral 
leprosy that tainted so many of the brilliant- 
ly bad pages that he scattered far and wide. 
Would that I could burn it into the 



MOTHERS IN ISRAEL. 123 

heart of every mother who reads these 
lines that, under God, she is chiefly re- 
sponsible for the moral and spiritual wel- 
fare of her household. If the mother is a 
frivolous fashion-worshipper, or is utterly 
prayerless and irreligious, or even careless 
of the spiritual welfare of the children, the 
whole home atmosphere catches the taint 
The downward pull of her home preaching 
is quite too strong for the upward pull of 
the best preaching in God's house on the 
Sabbath. On the other hand, if she does 
her utmost to make the religion of Jesus 
attractive to her family, if she is watchful 
of every opportunity to lead them Christ- 
ward, if she follows up the effect of Sab- 
bath-gospel by the powerful influence of 
home-gospel, then there is almost a moral 
certainty that God will send his converting 
grace into that household. Oh, mothers 
in Israel, try the blessed experiment ! 



124 BEULAH-LAND. 

Carlyle found the teachings and the 
granitic piety of his old Scotch mother 
about the chief breakwater against skep- 
ticism ; his rugged roughness seems always 
to have sweetened in her presence. That 
eminent preacher, Richard Cecil of Lon- 
don, tells us that when he was a youth 
he tried his utmost to be an infidel ; but 
his mother's beautiful and eloquent Chris- 
tianity was too much for him. He never 
could answer that. Sometimes she used 
to talk to him and weep as she talked. 
He says, " I flung out of the house with an 
oath ; but I wept, too, when I got into the 
street. Sympathy is the powerful engine 
of a mother." Yes, there is a power in 
her love, when it is reinforced by the grace 
of God, to reach and bring down the most 
stubborn heart ; it is a power that goes 
miles deeper than pulpit appeals, for it 
links itself with the primal instincts of our 



MOTHERS IN ISRAEL. 125 

nature. If every parent were thus faith- 
ful in prayer and winsome example we 
should behold what Dr. Horace Bushnell 
called " the out-populating power of the 
Christian stock." The family would be- 
come the nursery and training-school of 
religion. The home of natural birth would 
become the place of the new birth, and 
children — instead of running loose on the 
open common of sin, to be pursued by " re- 
vival efforts" in after years — would be led 
early to Jesus and into his church fold. 

11 Take this child away and nurse it for 
me, and I will give thee thy wages," said 
the Egyptian princess to Jochebed, the 
mother of Moses. She got her wages in 
better coin than silver or gold. She got 
them in the joys a mother feels when she 
yields up a part of herself to sustain her 
darling child ; she got them in the love of 
the babe she nursed ; she got them in the 



126 BEULAH-LAND. 

glorious service which her son wrought 
for Israel in after years. She was paid in 
the heavenly coin with which God pays 
good mothers. For all her anxieties, and 
all her exertions to preserve the life of her 
"goodly child," was she abundantly re- 
warded. 

When God lays a new-born babe in the 
arms of a mother he says to her heart, 
" Take this child and nurse it for me and 
I will give thee thy wages." The answer of 
maternal love should be, " Oh God, thou 
hast put thy noblest workmanship into my 
hands. I accept the precious trust. I will 
shelter this young life under thy mercy- 
seat. I will be truthful that it may never 
learn falsehood. I will nurse this soul in 
its infancy with the sincere milk of love 
that in after years it may bear strong meat 
for strong service of God and righteous- 
ness. Oh, Heavenly Father, make my life 



MOTHERS IN ISRAEL. 127 

in harmony with thyself, that this young 
life may reflect thy blessed image in follow- 
ing my example !" 

To such pious fidelity God offers the 
highest wages ; he pays the heart's claim 
in the heart's own coin. Faithful Hannah 
found her great reward in Samuel's great 
career. Moses on the Mount was the 
11 wages " of the poor Hebrew mother who 
cradled him in her basket of rushes. Saint 
Augustine's mighty service for the gospel 
was the best reward that God could give 
Monica ; our Washington was God's splen- 
did recompense to Washington's good mo- 
ther. The Lord never breaks his cove- 
nant with those who fulfill their covenant 
with him. 



128 BEULAH-LAND. 



15. CHRIST KNOWETH HIS OWN. 

Jesus knoweth them that are his. " I 
am the Good Shepherd, and know my 
sheep, and am known of mine." He can 
call every one of the flock by name. The 
officers of a church may be deceived in 
many cases of those who apply for admis- 
sion to membership ; but no putting on of 
" sheep's clothing" can mislead the omni- 
scient Shepherd. There is a wide-spread 
religious interest in the land, but among 
the many thousands that profess conver- 
sion it is not possible that Christ himself 
can be deceived as to a solitary case. Not 
only does he read every heart to the bot- 
tom ; it is by the operation of his divine 
Spirit that every soul is regenerated. Not 



CHRIST KNO WE TH HIS WN. 129 

every one who enters an inquiry-room 
finds Christ; and not every one who at- 
tends a " meeting of converts " is genuine- 
ly converted. Those who begin to lead a 
new life have got the new heart; those 
who follow the Shepherd have entered into 
the flock. There is a solemn warning in 
this fact. There is a precious comfort in 
it, too; for the Saviour knows perfectly 
well whom he is saving. 

Not only does Jesus Christ know exact- 
ly who have come into his true flock, but 
he knows all about every one of them — 
their strong points and their weak points, 
their besetting sins and their new experi- 
ences of grace just beginning to sprout in 
their hearts. When we are sick we send 
for the old family physician ; he is best 
acquainted with our constitutions. It is 
half the battle in family government for 

the parent to understand thoroughly the 
17 



i jo BEULAH-LAND, 

qualities of a child. Here is one gentle 
boy who can be led by a cotton thread ; 
and there is another who snaps the cords 
of restraint as Samson broke the seven 
green withes. Some parents pay dearly 
for their ignorance or wilful blindness to 
the real character of their children. That 
was a wise as well as a loving mother who 
said, " I do n't find it so hard to bring chil- 
dren up as I do to take them down, when 
they need it. 5 ' 

Our blessed Master, in his family disci- 
pline, commits no mistakes. When he 
takes an immortal soul under his loving 
care and into his training-school he under- 
stands the character of all his pupils. 
Scott's " Jeanie Deans " put it very well 
when she said, " There is Ane wha kens 
better what is for our gude than we ken 
oursells." Christ detects and exposes the 
self-seeking ambition of certain disciples 



CHRIST KNO WETH HIS WN. iji 

by setting a little child in the midst of 
them to teach them humility and unselfish- 
ness. In his raw inexperience Simon Pe- 
ter bragged loudly of his loyalty ; but the 
Master takes him down by the startling 
announcement, " Before the cock crows 
thou shalt deny me thrice !" Jesus discov- 
ered the splendid natural qualities in Saul 
of Tarsus which converting grace could 
mould into a leadership of the churches ; 
and what a tremendous schooling he gave 
him before he graduated ! The same Great 
Shepherd has a place of usefulness in his 
flock for humble Tryphena and Tryphosa, 
for Tertius with his pen and for Dorcas 
with her needle. Jesus knows just what is 
in every one of us, and just how much can 
be got out of us. This makes him, not a 
hard, exacting Master, but the most for- 
bearing and considerate of employers and 
guardians. He never lays on weak shoul- 



ij2 BEULAH-LAND. 

ders the loads which only stalwarts can 
carry. All the while, too, how sweetly 
come the encouraging words, " I am with 
you always ; my grace is sufficient for you; 
as thy days thy strength shall be." He 
calls us not slaves ; he calls us friends. 

How perfectly acquainted he is, too, 
with all our weaknesses ! He knoweth 
our frame; he remembereth we are but 
dust. Here is great encouragement for 
penitent sinners. Those poor fellows who 
drift from their dram-dens into the Jerry 
McAuley Mission House find there a 
pitying Shepherd who welcomes the most 
wretched outcast who has been bedraggled 
in the mire. Up at the other end of the 
scale Christ is equally conscious of the in- 
tellectual doubts and difficulties with which 
some Christians of skeptical temperaments 
have to contend. He quenches no smok- 
ing flax ; he breaks no bruised reeds. The 



CHRIS T KNO WE TH HIS O WN. ijj 

secret sorrow which I dare not breathe to 
the most intimate friend I can freely un- 
bosom to my Saviour. Ah, how well he 
knows every thorn that pricks my foot, and 
every wound that trickles its silent drops 
from the bleeding soul! This is a won- 
drous encouragement to prayer. For my 
Physician never will administer the wrong 
medicine, and I am sure he never will re- 
fuse to hear my pull at "the night-bell " 
in the hour of sudden distress. 

The fact of Christ's perfect knowledge 
of all our needs and requirements throws 
great light on some dark providences. It 
explains some mysteries : why one of us is 
put up and another is put down ; why one 
is prospered and another is impoverished ; 
why one seems to run before the breeze 
and another is buffeted with contrary 
winds. Dear, loving Master ! He know- 
eth what is for our good. Let him probe 



IJ4 BEULAH-LAND. 

to the bottom if the wound requires it. 
He knoweth what is in me ; yes, and what 
ought to come out of me, if I would attain 
to full health and robustness of spirit. Far 
better the probe and the pruning-knife 
than to be cast out as incurable cumberers 
of his fold. If it is a joy to know whom 
w 7 e have believed it is equally a joy that 
" he knoweth them that are his." There 
is a bond of reciprocal knowledge and 
affection between the Redeemer and his 
redeemed ones. Christ even compares it 
to the unity between the everlasting Father 
and the Son ; for as the Father knoweth 
the Son so doth the Shepherd know his 
flock! This is an overwhelming thought; 
and it points onward to an intimacy of 
everlasting love in heaven. 



THE HONEY OF GOUS WORD, ijj 



16. THE HONEY OF GOD'S WORD. 

A singular incident in old Hebrew 
history illustrates the sweetness and light 
that flow from God's blessed Word. Jon- 
athan was leading the army of Israel 
in pursuit of the Philistines, and King 
Saul had forbidden the troops to taste 
of food during the march. When the 
troops reached a forest where the bees 
had laid up their abundant stores several 
honeycombs were found lying upon the 
earth. Jonathan — not having heard of 
the royal edict — put forth the rod in his 
hand and dipped it in a honeycomb, and 
put it to his mouth, " and his eyes were 
enlightened." Refreshment came to his 
hungry frame and enlightenment to his 



ij6 BEULAH-LAND. 

eyes, which were dim with faintness and 
fatigue. 

What a beautiful parable this incident 
furnishes to set forth one of the manifold 
blessings of God's Word ! In the superbly 
sublime nineteenth Psalm David pronoun- 
ces that word to be sweeter than honey 
and the droppings of the honeycomb. In 
the same passage he declares that "it is 
pure, enlightening the eyes." Again the 
psalmist says : " The entrance of thy word 
givgth light." It is not the careless read- 
ing or the listless hearing of the book, 
but its entrance into the soul which pro- 
duces this inward illumination. There is 
a sadly increasing ignorance of the Scrip- 
tures ; when read publicly in the sanctua- 
ry thousands give but little heed. They 
do not take the vitalizing, heaven-sent 
truth into their souls as Jonathan took 
the honey into his system. 



THE HONEY OF GOD'S WORD. 137 

But when the Word is partaken of hun- 
grily, and the Holy Spirit accompanies it, 
there is a revelation made to the heart like 
that which the poor blind boy had after 
the operation of a skilful oculist. His 
mother led him out-of-doors, and, taking 
off the bandages, gave him his first view 
of sunshine and sky and flowers. " Oh, 
mother," he exclaimed, " why did you 
never tell me it was so beautiful ?" The 
tears started as she replied. " I tried to 
tell you, my dear ; but you could not un- 
derstand me." So the spiritual eyesight 
must be opened in order that the spiritual 
beauty and wisdom and glory of the divine 
Word may be discovered. Many a poor 
sinner has never found out what a glori- 
ous gospel our gospel is until he has swal- 
lowed the honey for himself. Dr. Horace 
Bushnell voiced the experiences of many 

of us when he said, " My experience is 
18 



138 BEULAH-LAND. 

that the Bible is dull when I am dull 
When I am really alive, and set in upon 
the text with a tidal pressure of living 
affinities, it opens, it multiplies discoveries 
and reveals depths even faster than I can 
note them. The worldly spirit shuts the 
Bible ; the Spirit of God makes it a fire, 
flaming out all meanings and glorious 
truths." 

The most growing Christian never out- 
grows his Bible ; in that exhaustless jewel- 
mine every stroke of the mattock reveals 
new nuggets of gold and fresh diamonds. 

Even as a mental discipline there is no 
book like God's book. Nothing else so 
sinews up the intellect, so clarifies the 
perception, so enlarges the views, so puri- 
fies the taste, so quickens the imagination, 
strengthens the understanding, and edu- 
cates the whole man. The humblest day 
laborer who saturates his mind with this 



THE HONEY OF GOD'S WORD. ijp 

celestial schoolbook becomes a superior 
man to his comrades — not merely a purer 
man, but a clearer-headed man. It was 
the feeding on this honey dropping from 
heaven which gave to the Puritans their 
wonderful sagacity as well as their uncon- 
querable loyalty to the right. The secret 
of the superiority of the old-fashioned 
Scottish peasantry was found in that u big 
ha' Bible " which Burns described as the 
daily companion at every ingleside. Sim- 
ply as an educator the Scriptures ought 
to be read in every schoolhouse, and there 
ought to be a chair of Bible instruction 
in every college. As the honey strewed 
the forests for Jonathan and his soldiers 
to feed upon, so the loving Lord has sent 
down his Word for all hungering humani- 
ty, high or humble; as the sunlight was 
made for all eyes, this book was made for 
all hearts. 



140 BEULAH-LAND. 

It is more than light ; for it is an en- 
lightener. Not only does it reveal the 
grandest, sublimest and most practical 
truths, but it improves and enlarges the 
vision. It makes the blind to see, and 
the strong sight all the stronger. Who 
of us that have been sorely perplexed 
about questions of right and wrong, and 
puzzled as to our duty, have not caught 
new views and true views as soon as we 
dipped our rod into this honeycomb ? Once 
when I was sadly perplexed about the 
question of changing my field of labor— 
which would have changed the whole cur- 
rent of my life — a single text of Scripture 
instantly decided me: and I never re- 
pented the decision. Poor Cowper, har- 
assed and tormented, found in the twen- 
ty-fifth verse of the third chapter of Ro- 
mans the honey which brought light to 
his overclouded soul. John Wesley made 



THE HONEY OF GO US WORD. 141 

the most signal discovery of his life when 
he thrust his rod into this verse: " The 
law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus 
has made me free from the law of sin and 
death." Even Paul had not learned his 
own sinfulness until " the commandment 
came " and opened his eyes. It is this 
heart-revealing power of the Book that 
makes it so invaluable in pulpit and in- 
quiry-room. 

Ah, there is many a one among my read- 
ers who can testify how the precious honey 
from heaven brought light and joy to his 
eves when dimmed with sorrow. The 
exceeding rich and infallible promises were 
not only sweet, they were illuminating. 
They lighted up the valley of the shadow 
of death ; they showed how crosses can 
be turned into crowns, and how losses 
can brighten into glorious gains. When 
I am in a sick room I almost always dip 



142 BEULAH-LAND. 

my rod into the honeycomb of the four- 
teenth chapter of John. It brings the 
Master there with his words of infinite 
comfort. One of my noblest Sunday- 
school teachers so fed on this divine honey 
that on her dying bed she said, " My path 
through the valley is long, but 't is bright 
all the way." 

Nothing opens the sinner's eyes to see 
himself and to see the Saviour of sinners 
like the simple Word. The Bible is a book 
to reveal iniquity in the secret parts. If 
a young man will dip his rod into this 
warning, " Look not upon the wine when 
it is red," he may discover that there is 
a nest of adders in the glass! If the 
skeptic and the scoffer can be induced to 
taste some of that honey which Christ 
gave to Nicodemus he may find hell a 
tremendous reality to be shunned, and 
heaven a glorious reality to be gained. 



THE HONEY OF GOD'S WORD. 143 

Brethren in the ministry, I am confi- 
dent that our chief business is not only 
to eat hugely of this divine enlightening 
honey, but to tell people where to dip 
their rods. A distinguished theological 
professor said to me, " If I should return 
to the pastoral charge of a church I 
should do two things : I would make 
more direct personal efforts for the con- 
version of souls, and I would spend no 
time on the rhetoric of my sermons : I 
w 7 ould saturate my mind with Bible truth, 
and then deliver that truth in the sim- 
plest idiomatic English that I could com- 
mand." 

The honey from heaven lies abundant 
on the ground. May God help us to 
show it to the hungry, the needy and the 
perishing ! 



144 BEULAH-LAND. 



17. THE RIGHT KIND OF SUBMISSION. 

Our divine Master once said, " Except 
ye be converted and become as little chil- 
dren ye shall not enter into the kingdom 
of heaven." The best trait of the best 
child is implicit obedience to parental au- 
thority. And the clearest test of conver- 
sion is implicit obedience to the Lord Jesus 
Christ. The trouble with us is that we 
so often pick and choose just what we will 
obey, and how much we will obey, and 
whom we will obey. All the most striking 
cases of obedience mentioned in the Bible — 
Abraham laying his son on the altar, Dan- 
iel braving the king's lions, Naaman going 
straight to the Jordan, the leper hastening 
to the priest and being healed as he went, 



RIGHT KIND OF SUBMISSION. i 45 

the paralytic stretching out his withered 
arm — all these have the quality of prompt- 
ness to do just as they were directed. Is- 
sues and results are left with God. The 
negro preacher hit the idea exactly in that 
oft-quoted assertion, " If God tells me to 
jump troo dat stone wall I 'm going to 
jump at it. Goin' troo it belongs to God ; 
jumpin' at it belongs to me." That was 
the grotesque way of putting the same 
sublime truth as is conveyed in the com- 
mand, " Speak to the children of Israel that 
they go forward!'' To march into the 
Red Sea belonged to Moses ; to divide the 
Red Sea and make a dry pathway for his 
people was God's prerogative. 

If there be any one beautiful trait in 
healthy-hearted childhood it is the trait of 
cheerful submission to the will of father 
and mother. Submission to the clearly 

ascertained will of God, whatever it may 
19 



146 BEULAH-LAND. 

cost us, or however it may cross us, is one 
of the most genuine evidences of true con- 
version. I doubt if there be any higher 
attainment in the Christian life than for 
any of us to be able to say honestly, " I 
pray God that I may never find my own 
will again as long as I live." Let us un- 
derstand, however, just what kind of sub- 
mission we are to practise. We are bound 
to submit to God's distinct orderings, and 
to such trials as he lays upon us for our 
spiritual discipline. Dr. Payson of Port- 
land wisely said that " no man is fit to rise 
up from a bed of suffering and labor again 
for Christ until he is made willing to lie 
still and suffer as long as his Master 
pleases." 

But there are obstacles often found in 
our pathway that are just to test our faith, 
our courage, and our loyalty to the right. 
Many a Hill Difficulty is encountered on 



RIGHT KIND OF SUBMISSION, 147 

our road to heaven, to sinew our strength 
by the tough climb. Apollyon is allowed 
sometimes to stride right across our path 
with the defiant threat, " Thou shalt go no 
farther, and here will I spill thy soul I" He 
is a puny Christian who has no such set- 
to's with the devil. Our Heavenly Father 
puts some things in our way as prohibi- 
tions ; and we do ourselves deadly harm if 
we try to remove them or get around 
them. Other things are placed there to 
test our spiritual force and our loyalty ; the 
only right course is for us to lay hold of 
them and hurl them out of our way. When 
the youthful David discovered the lion 
and the bear attacking his flocks he did 
not say, " Providence sent these animals, 
and I must submit to them." If there 
were any providence in it the object might 
rather be to develop his grit. Pastors 
often submit tamely to conditions in their 



i 4 8 BEULAH-LAND. 

church that ought to be dealt with as the 
young shepherd dealt with those beasts of 
prey. Good people in every community 
submit to intolerable evils, nuisances, and 
public curses until some heroic leader 
fairly shames them into revolt. 

In this whole great matter of submission 
to the will of God it is exceedingly impor- 
tant to discriminate wisely. God may 
sometimes seem to turn a deaf ear to our 
prayers. His silence or failure to answer 
should teach us " to pray and not to faint." 
That earnest woman on the coast of Ca- 
naan would have made an awful mistake 
if she had given over her praying simply 
because Christ kept her for a while at 
arm's length. Her persistence carried the 
day — as the Master meant that it should. 
God often says " no " to little faith and 
lazy hands : he loves to say " yes " to stur- 
dy faith and hard work. Sometimes my 



RIGHT KIND OF SUBMISSION, i 4 g 

Heavenly Father lays heavy afflictions on 
me and tells me all the while, " whom I 
love I chasten." Then let me submit. At 
other times he lays, or permits to be laid, 
great obstacles in my path, and then the 
voice to me is, " If thou hast faith as a 
grain of mustard seed this mountain shall 
be removed. My grace is sufficient for 
thee." The line of correct distinction be- 
tween the two opposite errors seems to be 
just about in this fashion : a sinner sub- 
mits to unrighteous demands ; the true 
Christian never does. The sinner refuses 
to submit to God's just and holy demands, 
and to his orderings in providence ; the 
childlike Christian submits without a mur- 
mur : " Not as I will, Father, but as thou 
wilt." God's wise government is the solid- 
est ground of my confidence and joy ; it is 
the rock-bed that underlies all my theol- 
ogy. To fight against God means — hell! 



ISO BEULAH-LAND. 

To obey God and sweetly submit to him 
is the prelude of heaven. 

The late Dr. Thomas H. Skinner was 
one of the godliest men I ever knew. 
When a circle of eminent ministers met 
at his house one Saturday evening he re- 
quested them to join in singing Schmolke's 
beautiful hymn: 

" My Jesus, as thou wilt ! 

Oh, may thy will be mine ; 
Into thy hand of love 

I would my all resign. 
Straight to my home above 

I travel calmly on, 
And sing, in life or death, 

My Lord, thy will be done 1" 

On the next Saturday evening that 
same circle of brethren joined in paying 
loving tribute to his memory ! The noble 
veteran had yielded up every wish to his 
Lord and Redeemer, and was sweetly sur- 
prised into heaven. 



THE CHRISTIAN'S ASSURANCE. iji 



18. SUGAR IN THE TEA ; OR, THE CHRISTIAN'S 
ASSURANCE. 

When a young convert was asked the 
question, " How do you know Jesus Christ 
has accepted and forgiven you, and that 
you are a Christian ?" the answer was, 
11 How do you know when you have got 
sugar in your tea ?" This was a sufficient 
answer; the forgiven soul had felt the 
change which conversion brings, and had 
tasted the love of Jesus. It was a posi- 
tive experience; he knew whom he had 
believed. 

Some good people who are troubled 
with a desponding temperament worry 
themselves about this matter of assur- 
ance. To such we would say — do n't 
vex your soul about assurance ; prac- 



J52 BEULAH-LAND. 

tice the faith of adherence. Cleave fast 
to Jesus Christ. Fasten your weakness 
to his omnipotence ; in your ignorance 
seek his guidance ; when he says, " My 
blood cleanseth from sin," believe him ; 
and when conscience bids you do any- 
thing to please Christ, do it. That Sa- 
viour who died for you asks you to trust 
him and to follow him; and that is all 
that he demands of you. Are you sin- 
cerely, honestly doing that? Then listen 
to what that loving Saviour says to you : 
" My sheep hear my voice and I know 
them and they follow me. And I give 
unto them eternal life, and they shall 
never perish, neither shall any man pluck 
them out of my hand.'' Christ never de- 
clared that if you or I in a fit of self-con- 
fidence or waywardness threw ourselves 
out of that loving hand we would be safe ; 
we are only safe while we remain there. 



THE CHRISTIAN'S ASSURANCE. 133 

All that is required of you is adherence 
and obedience. You have got to put the 
sugar into your tea if you want to taste 
its sweetness. 

Repentance unto life is a turning away 
from your sins unto God with a full pur- 
pose of and endeavor after new obedience. 
Are you doing that ? Saving faith is the 
heart's cling to Jesus Christ and him only. 
If you are doing that it ought to give you 
a cheerful, delightful sense of security. 
11 Faith is the milk," Spurgeon used to 
say, " and assurance is the cream that 
rises on it." If your milk is nearly all 
water you cannot expect much cream. 
The stronger your faith of adherence the 
more peace of mind and spiritual joy you 
will have. The Bible does not declare 
that assurance is essential to salvation; 
but it does declare that faith and obedi- 
ence to Jesus Christ are essential. I do n't 



20 



IS 4 BEULAH-LAND. 

doubt that a great many people will get 
into heaven who had rather a feeble faith 
and still less joy in this world. Their feet 
were not "like hinds' feet;" they hobbled 
along on crutches. That was not Christ's 
fault ; it was their own fault. 

Poor Peter had rather a feeble faith 
when he screamed to his Master out of 
the waves, " Lord, save me !" he had 
received from the Holy Spirit a great 
baptism and attained a mighty faith when 
his trenchant sermon at Pentecost brought 
in thousands of converts. Saul of Tarsus 
had an infant faith in his soul when he 
was groping about in the house of Ana- 
nias at Damascus ; the infant had grown 
into a giant when Paul could shout, in 
the eighth chapter of Romans, " Neither 
height, nor depth, nor any other creature, 
shall be able to separate me from the love 
of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord !" 



THE CHRISTIAN'S ASSURANCE. 155 

We have just said that assurance is not 
a positive essential to salvation ; but it is 
essential to our peace and comfort. It is 
the duty of every Christian to seek for it ; 
the more sugar we put into the draught 
the sweeter will it be to our taste. Old 
heroic Latimer used to say that when he 
had a strong steadfast trust in his Master 
he could face a lion ; when he lost it he 
was ready to run into a mouse-hole. If 
you and I have put our entire trust in 
Jesus Christ for our salvation, and are 
striving every day to do his will and to 
bless our fellow-men with our religion, 
then he is responsible for the trust. Why 
should we worry ? 

When I built this house I got a deed 
for the land and recorded it. I do n't run 
down to the registry office every week 
to see that the title is good. If we have 
taken Jesus Christ at his word, and com- 



i 5 6 BEULAH-LAND. 

mitted our souls to his keeping and our 
lives to his ordering and our powers to 
his service, let us not worry about our 
title-deeds to heaven. Go about your 
life work, brother, and do it thoroughly 
and conscientiously. God is responsible 
for the results, sooner or later, and for 
your final reward. The shepherd know- 
eth his flock, and calleth them all by 
name. To you his voice is " Only be- 
lieve," " Follow me !" If your cup of trial 
is sometimes bitter, put in more of the 
sugar of faith. If you feel chilled by the 
disappointment of your plans or the un- 
kindness of others, get into the sunshine 
of Christ's love. If income runs down, 
invest more in God's precious promises. 
A good, stout, healthy faith will sweeten 
your affections, and sweeten your toils, 
and sweeten your home, and sweeten the 
darkest hours that may lie between this 



THE CHRISTIAN'S ASSURANCE. ij? 

and heaven, Adherence will bring as- 
surance. 

"If our love were but more simple 
We would take him at his word, 
And our lives would be all sunshine 
In the sweetness of our Lord/' 



ijS BEULAH-LAND. 



19. GOD NEVER DISAPPOINTS US. 

We cannot trust ourselves too little, and 
we cannot trust God too much. " Trust 
in the Lord with all thy heart, and lean 
not upon thine own understanding." 
Somewhere in the future there hangs be- 
fore us in the air a golden ideal of a per- 
fect life, but as we move on the dream of 
complete victory over sin moves on also 
before us. It is like the child running 
over the hill to catch the rainbow; when 
he gets over the hill the rainbow is as far 
off as ever. If our expectation of spirit- 
ual growth and of conquest of temptation 
rests on our own resolutions and on our 
own strength, then our day-dreams are 
continually doomed to disappointment. 



GOD NEVER DISAPPOINTS US. 159 

" My soul, wait thou only upon God ; 
for my expectation is from him." God 
never disappoints us. When we study 
the Almighty in the book of nature or the 
book of revelation we find our utmost 
expectation overtopped by the wonderful 
reality. When we obey God we find the 
rich reward sooner or later just as surely 
as day follows the sunrise. When we 
trust God he never fails us. When we 
pray to him aright, with faith, with sub- 
missiveness, with perseverance, and with 
honest desire to glorify him, he answers 
us. I do n't believe our Heavenly Father 
ever turned a deaf ear to an honest prayer 
offered in the right spirit. He is a Sove- 
reign, and doeth his own wise will ; and if 
it pleaseth him to keep us waiting for the 
answer, then we must understand that de- 
lays are not always denials. 

If we had only to demand from God 



160 BEULAH-LAND. 

just what we desire, and in the way and 
the time that suits our pleasure, then we 
would be snatching God's sceptre and try- 
ing to rule the Ruler of the universe. Did 
you ever know a child that ruled its par- 
ents without ruining itself? And if it 
spoils our children to have their own way 
I am sure that it would be for our ruin if 
we could bend God to all our wishes. If 
this be our " expectation " from God, then 
the sooner we abandon it the better. God 
keeps all his promises, but he has never 
promised to let you and me hold the reins. 
He answers prayer, but in the way and at 
the time that his infinite wisdom deter- 
mines. Some prayers are not answered 
at once ; more than one faithful mother 
has gone to her grave before the child for 
whose conversion she prayed has given his 
heart to Jesus. Some prayers are an- 
swered in a way so unlooked for that the 



GOD NEVER DISAPPOINTS US. 161 

answer is not recognized ; eternity will 
"make it plain." For many petitions are 
answered according to the intention and 
not according to the strict letter of the 
request; the blessing granted has been 
something different from what the believer 
expected. Jacob, when he blessed the 
sons of Joseph, laid his right hand on the 
son who stood at his left side. So God 
sometimes takes off his hand of blessing 
from the thing we prayed for and lays it 
on another which is more for our good 
and his own glory. He often surprises 
his people with unexpected blessings — and 
heaven will have abundance of such sur- 
prises. 

Let us rejoice to remember that our 
Saviour is God, and in him dwelleth all 
fulness. " Of his fulness have we all re- 
ceived," said the Beloved Disciple, and 
John was not disappointed. Neither was 

21 



162 BEULAH-LAND. 

Paul when he found himself " filled with 
might in the inner man." There is a ful- 
ness of grace and love and power and peace 
and comfort that his redeemed children 
have never been able to explore, much less 
to exhaust I left some little brooks, near- 
ly run dry, the other day, up in the moun- 
tains, but I found yonder harbor, fed from 
the fathomless Atlantic, as full as ever. 
" Oh, how shallow a soul I have to take in 
Christ's love/' said the holy Rutherford; 
" I have spilled more of his grace than I 
have brought with me. How little of the 
sea can a child carry in his hand ; as little 
am I able to take away of my great Sea, 
my boundless and running over Christ 
Jesus !" 

When a friend of mine, long years ago, 
urged John Jacob Astor to subscribe for a 
certain object, and told him that his son 
had subscribed, the old German millionaire 



GOD NEVER DISAPPOINTS US. 163 

replied very dryly, " He can do it ; he has 
got a rich father." Brother Christian, you 
and I have got a rich Father! We are 
heirs to a great inheritance and possessors 
of exceeding precious promises. Let us 
ask for great things. God must take it ill 
that we covet so little of the best things 
and pray with such scrimped and scanty 
faith. " Open thy mouth wide and I will 
fill it." We can easily over-expect from 
our fellow-creatures, but we cannot over- 
expect God. " The Lord taketh pleasure 
in those that hope in his mercy." I have 
read many a biography which ended in 
bright hopes quenched in blackness of 
darkness, but I never have read, and never 
have I heard of the experience, of any man 
who confessed that he was disappointed 
in his Lord and Saviour. 

" My soul, wait thou only upon God : 
for my expectation is from him." There 



164 BEULAH-LAND. 

can be no divided responsibility ; it is God 
or nobody. As the old Puritan writer 
Trapp reminds us, " They trust not God 
at all who trust him not entirely ; he that 
stands with one foot on a rock and another 
foot on a quicksand will sink as surely as 
he that hath both feet on a quicksand." 
The stake is indescribably tremendous, for 
it involves my eternal destiny. Even hea- 
ven is as yet only an " expectation," but it 
is from him ! 

1 ' My hope is built on nothing less 
Than Jesus' blood and righteousness ; 
On Christ the solid rock I stand ; 
All other ground is sinking sand." 



FRUITFUL CHRISTIANS. 165 



20. FRUITFUL CHRISTIANS. 

Autumn is the season of fruit harvests, 
when the orchards have " paid their divi- 
dends/' and the music of ripe apples is 
heard as they go rattling into their bins. 
The wormy and the worthless fruit has 
been thrown to the swine ; only the sound 
fruit is accounted fit for the cellar or the 
market. Every Christian church is an or- 
chard, and every tree in that orchard is 
"known by its fruits." Too many there 
are who try to pass for Christians ; but 
from them the yield of genuine graces can 
no more be expected than the owner of a 
grove of scrub oaks would expect a crop 
of Bartlett pears. The fruits of the Holy 
Spirit — as the apostle catalogues them — 



1 66 BEULAH-LAND. 

are love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentle- 
ness, faith, meekness, and temperance. 

The first essential to a fruitful Christian 
is that he be well rooted. No part of a 
tree is so invisible and yet so important as 
its roots. The condition of a tree com- 
monly reports where its roots are and 
what they are doing. A dearth of life 
below ground means barrenness above 
ground. The roots of our religious life 
are our secret motives and our ruling af- 
fections; and no one can claim to be a 
genuine Christian unless Jesus Christ 
dwelleth down in the core of his heart. 
When we are shocked to discover the loose 
living and spiritual barrenness of some 
church members it is because the branch- 
es of their profession hang over on the 
church side of the wall while their roots 
are in the sandy soil of worldliness on the 
other side. There is no heart-union to 



FRUITFUL CHRISTIANS. 167 

Christ; and he has declared, " Except ye 
abide in me ye can bear no fruit." 

A godly life is not the result of a divine 
decree without any free agency on our 
part, much less is it a matter of happy 
accident. Grapes do not grow on thorn 
bushes, nor are figs gathered from thistles. 
Multitudes of people expect at some day 
to become Christians, and often wish that 
they were Christians, and yet they do not 
apply the common-sense principle of causes 
and results. To be a Christian signifies 
that one has the divine " root of the mat- 
ter" in him — that he has a character 
which grows out of faith in the crucified 
Christ and proves itself genuine by obedi- 
ence to Christ's commandments. Such a 
character is not a matter of divine decree, 
or of human haphazard, any more than 
wheat grows without planting, or that 
Hamburg grapevines spring up spontane- 



168 BEULAH-LAND. 

ously in our gardens. Christian character 
is a growth — first the blade, then the ear, 
and after that the full, ripe corn in the ear. 
There can be no vigorous growth without 
a deep rooting into Jesus Christ; and shal- 
low conversions produce shallow Chris- 
tians. 

Some Christians are bountiful fruit- 
bearers, and the reason is that they draw 
all their supplies of grace and all their in- 
spiration of daily conduct from their deep- 
down heart-union to Jesus. Love of Jesus 
is the motive that subdues selfishness ; and 
loyalty to Jesus holds them as a stout root 
holds a tree amid the blasts of winter's 
tempests, or under the summer's parching 
droughts. Glorious old Paul was always 
abounding in the work of the Lord, and he 
tells the secret of it when he said, " Christ 
liveth in me." A drought never affects a 
well-rooted Christian whose soul is in con- 



FRUITFUL CHRISTIANS, i6g 

stant connection with the fountain-head of 
all spiritual power 

There is too much periodical piety in 
our churches. Some brethren are only 
flourishing during seasons of "revival." 
The rest of the time they have a very 
dingy look; their leaves get so powdered 
over with the dust of worldliness that they 
are very unsightly objects. There are 
some others whose leaf turns yellow very 
soon after they are planted in the church : 
this betrays a lack of moisture at the root, 
or perhaps a secret worm of indulged sin 
that is devouring the life of the tree. It is 
a wretched mistake to deal with the exter- 
nals before the world while the condition 
of the heart is neglected. If the heart is 
rooted by the "rivers of water" the leaf 
will be always green and the fruit abun- 
dant. Such a disciple never ceases to yield 
fruit. Every year is a bearing year. It is 



22 



170 BEULAH-LAND. 

the fixed habit of this faithful brother to 
attend the place of prayer in all weathers, 
to give according to his means, to pay 
every one his dues, to share his loaf with 
the suffering, to give his vote as con- 
science demands, and to stand up for Jesus 
Christ everywhere and on all occasions. 
He is always abounding in the work of the 
Master. 

This is the sort of Christian who glori- 
fies his Father in heaven by " bearing 
much fruit." The word " much " here is 
comparative. What would be much for 
a washerwoman would be paltry for a 
millionaire. A certain city church may 
plume itself on contributing fifty thousand 
dollars a year to foreign missions ; but 
who in that church pinches himself or 
herself to do it ? We could match against 
those dwellers in freestone and marble a 
poor widow who at the end of a day of 



FRUITFUL CHRISTIANS. 171 

drudgery puts on a dress that has been 
turned three times and trudges two miles 
on foot to her prayer-meeting, saving her 
car-fare for the missionary box ; verily 
her gift outshines them all. The Master 
weighs gifts and labor in the scale of self- 
denial. Barnabas heads the column in the 
apostolic church ; he gives his real estate 
to the Lord, he goes a city missionary to 
Antioch and a foreign missionary to Cy- 
prus, and wins the lofty title, " full of the 
Holy Spirit." 

" Much fruit " means the giving to Christ 
the best we have. It is the lading of every 
limb on life's tree — be it a giant or a dwarf. 
He who in the lowliest sphere walks ac- 
cording to the Scripture rule, employs his 
time and single talent, controls his words, 
regulates his conduct and does his work in 
such a conscientious way as to make his 
religion legible and luminous to all around 



ij 2 BEULAH-LAND. 

him — such a man is a bountiful fruit- 
bearer. In the Isle of Wight dwelt a poor 
" Dairyman's Daughter " and a " Little 
Jane, the Young Cottager," whose precious 
clusters of choice grapes of grace have sent 
out a sweet fragrance over Christendom. 
They " did what they could." Luther, the 
prince of reformers, Wesley, the prince of 
church organizers, Livingstone, the prince 
of missionaries, Shaftesbury, the prince of 
modern philanthropists, shook down their 
fruits over many lands ; yet in God's sight 
they won no higher honor than the two 
cottage maidens. One of the most mag- 
nificent bearers, who " yielded fruit every 
month " for forty years, was transplanted 
last winter from the soil of Boston to the 
soil of heaven. Adoniram Judson Gor- 
don's power for Christ, instead of being 
terminated by his earthly life, increases 
every day ; his goodly branches like the 



FRUITFUL CHRISTIANS. 173 

cedar's extend to the rivers ; he is teach- 
ing to the churches the " Ministry of the 
Spirit " as no man in our day has taught 
that sovereign truth ; grateful souls will be 
gathering his ripe fruits, delicious to the 
taste, when the millennial glory breaks ! 

Living to Jesus Christ every day and in 
the minutest things of life is the secret 
of fruitfulness. A fruitful Christian is a 
growth — not a sudden creation. A noble 
Christly character cannot be finished up 
by a religion of Sundays and sacraments 
and special services ; it is the product of 
many days of sunshine and storm, of draw- 
ing in the vital sap from Jesus as the liv- 
ing Head, of conflict and prayer and self- 
denials, and downpourings of the Holy 
Spirit. The religion that would rather be 
poor than touch a dishonest dollar, that 
would rather go through a Sunday's fierce 
storm to its mission school than lie on its 



174 BEULAH-LAND. 

lounge ; a religion that in all things serves 
Christ for the sheer love of serving him — 
this is the kind of spiritual growth whose 
fruits taste of the divine life within it. 
Blessed is that Christian whose broad 
boughs are laden with " apples of gold " 
for God's "baskets of silver"! Such bless- 
edness is within the reach of every one 
who reads this book ; as you lay it down, 
ask yourself, " Am I bearing the genuine 
fruits of the Holy Spirit?" 



A LITTLE WHILE. /;j 



21. A LITTLE WHILE. 

In our Lord's last conversation with 
his disciples before his betrayal and cruci- 
fixion he said to them, " A little while 
and ye shall not see me ; and again a little 
while and ye shall see me, because I go 
unto the Father." Before them was the 
bloody tragedy on Calvary, and forty 
days after that his ascension through the 
vernal air to heaven. They would see 
him no more in earthly form. But in 
another little while — in fifty days there- 
after — he would come again by his Holy 
Spirit in the wondrous baptism of power 
at Pentecost. He was then to be glori- 
fied by the Holy Spirit in the hearts of his 
disciples. Jesus Christ is with his people 



176 BEULAH-LAND. 

now; for did he not promise, " Lo, I am 
with you alway "? 

Those sweet tender words, "a little 
while," have deep thoughts in them, like 
the still ocean at the twilight — thoughts 
too deep for our fathoming. They breathe 
some precious consolations to those whose 
burdens are heavy, either of care, or pov- 
erty, or sickness. If the prosperous can 
enjoy their prosperity only for a little while 
neither shall the mourner weep much 
longer, or God's poor children carry much 
longer the pains or privations of poverty. 
The daily toil to earn the daily bread, the 
carking care to keep the barrel from run- 
ning low and the scanty " cruse " from 
wasting, will soon be over. Cheer up, my 
brother ! " A little while and ye shall see 
me," says your blessed Master, " for I go 
to prepare a place for you." Oh the infi- 
nite sweep of the glorious transition ! A 



A LITTLE WHILE. 177 

few years here in a lowly dwelling, whose 
rent it is hard to pay, and then infinite 
ages in the palace of the King of kings. 
Here a scanty table and coarse raiment 
soon outworn ; yonder a robe of resplen- 
dent light at the marriage-supper of the 
Lamb. Let this blissful thought put new 
courage into thy soul, and fresh sunshine 
into thy countenance. 

I sometimes go into a sick chamber 
where the "prisoners of Jesus Christ" 
are suffering with no prospect of recov- 
ery. Perhaps the eyes of some of those 
chronic invalids may fall upon this article. 
My dear friends, put under your pillows 
these sweet words of Jesus — u a little 
while." It is only for a little while that 
you are to serve your Master by patient 
submission to his holy will. That chronic 
suffering will soon be over. That dis- 
ease which no earthly physician can cure 
23 



178 BEULAH-LAND. 

will soon be cured by your Divine Physi- 
cian, who by the touch of his messenger 
will cure you, in an instant, into the per- 
fect health of heaven ! You will exchange 
this weary bed of pain for that crystal 
air in which none shall say, " I am sick ;" 
neither shall there be any more pain. 

Not only to the sick and to the pov- 
erty-stricken child of God do these ten- 
der words of our Redeemer bring solace. 
Let these words, " a little while," bring a 
healing balm to hearts that are smarting 
under unkindness, or wounded by neglect, 
or pining under privations, or bleeding 
under sharp bereavements. I offer them 
as a sedative to sorrows and a solace 
under sharp afflictions. " A little while 
and ye shall see me," and the sight of him 
shall wipe out all the memories of the 
darkest hours through which you made 
your way into the everlasting rest. 



A LITTLE WHILE. i?g 

"A few more struggles here, 
A few more conflicts o'er, 
A little while of toils and tears, 
And we shall weep no more." 

These words of the Master are also a 
trumpet-call to duty. In a little while my 
post in the pulpit shall be empty; what 
manner of minister ought I to be in fideli- 
ty to dying souls ? Sabbath-school teach- 
er, in a little while you shall meet the 
young immortals in your class for the 
last time. Are you winning them to 
Christ ? The time is short. Whatever 
your hands find to do for the Master, do 
it. Do it, Aquila and Priscilla, in the 
Sunday-school ! Do it, Lydia, in the home ! 
Do it, Dorcas, with thy needle, and Mary 
in the room of sickness and sorrow ! Do 
it, Tertius, with thy pen and, Apollos, 
with thy tongue ! Do it, praying Hannah, 
with thy children, and make for them the 



180 BEULAH-LAND. 

" little coat " of Christian character which 
they shall wear when you have gone home 
to a mother's heavenly reward. 

Only think, too, how much may be 
achieved in a little while. The atone- 
ment for a world of perishing sinners 
was accomplished between the sixth hour 
and the ninth hour on darkened Calvary. 
That flash of divine electricity from the 
Holy Spirit which struck Saul of Tarsus 
to the ground was the work of an instant, 
but the great electric burner of the con- 
verted Paul has blazed over all the world 
for centuries. A half-hour's faithful preach- 
ing of Jesus by a poor itinerant Method- 
ist exhorter at Colchester brought the 
boy Spurgeon to a decision, and launched 
the mightiest ministry of modern times. 
Lady Henry Somerset tells us that a 
few minutes of solemn reflection in her 
garden decided her to exchange a life of 



A LITTLE WHILE. 181 

fashionable frivolity for a life of conse- 
crated philanthropy. Why cite any more 
cases, when every Christian can testify 
that the best decisions and deeds of his 
or her life turned on the pivot of a few 
minutes? In the United States Mint 
they coin eagles out of the sweepings of 
gold dust from the floor. Brethren, we 
ought to be misers of our minutes! If 
on a dying bed they are so precious, why 
not in the fuller days of our healthful 
energies ? Said General Mitchell, the great 
astronomer, to an officer who apologized 
for being only a few minutes behind time, 
11 Sir, I have been in the habit of calcula- 
ting the tenth part of a second !" 

Our whole eternity will hinge on the 
"little while" of probation here. Only an 
inch of time to choose between an eterni- 
ty of glory or the endless woes of hell ! 
And as a convert exclaimed in a prayer- 



i82 BEULAH-LAND. 

meeting, " it was only a moment's work 
with me when I was in earnest." May 
God help us all to be faithful — only for a 
little while ; and then comes the unfading 
crown : 

"A little while for patient vigil-keeping 
To face the stern — to wrestle with the strong, 

A little while to sow the seed with weeping, 
Then bind the sheaves and sing the harvest-song. 

"A little while to keep the oil from failing, 
A little while faith's flickering lamp to trim, 

And then, the Bridegroom's coming footsteps hail- 
ing, 
We'll haste to meet him with the bridal hymn." 



READY! 183 



22. READY! 

" When Death calls the roll, always be 
ready to answer ' Here!' " This familiar 
motto of Fenimore Cooper's old Trapper of 
the prairie is a backwoodsman's paraphrase 
of the Scripture injunction, " Be ye also 
ready, for in such an hour as ye think 
not the Son of man cometh I" Everybody 
admits that his or her name will soon be 
called. Everybody admits the uncertainty 
of life and the absolute certainty of death. 
Some of those who read this paragraph 
may be within a few weeks or days of the 
eternal world ; the invisible cistern may be 
nearly run out, and only a few drops left. 
Suppose this were your case, my friend ; 
would you be frightened ? You ought not 



1 84 BEULAH-LAND. 

to be if you are ready to go ; and if you 
are not, then it is of infinite moment to 
you that you should be " setting your house 
in order." Suppose that you ask yourself 
two or three questions, that you may know 
whether you are ready for the approaching 
roll-call. 

i. Are your business affairs in the right 
condition to be left? Are your accounts 
square, and your books so kept that you 
would be willing to have them audited, not 
only by your executors, but by the All-see- 
ing Eye? It is hardly possible that you 
should not be owing a single dollar to any- 
body. But every man should conscien- 
tiously endeavor to keep his affairs so well 
ordered that, if a stroke of lightning or an 
apoplectic attack should end his life in an 
instant, his creditors should not suffer the 
unjust loss of a dime. Death is a merci- 
less revealer sometimes ; he makes awful 



READY! 185 

exposure of some mens secret dishonesty 
and of others' criminal carelessness and 
improvidence. Would a single creditor 
suffer if you were to die to-morrow ? For 
remember that it is just as dishonest to 
cheat your fellow-men from your coffin as 
to cheat them in your store, your shop or 
your office. No Christian, surely, would 
wish to escape his creditor or to " take the 
benefit of the act " by hiding away in his 
sepulchre ; and it will be a terrible thing to 
have some poor wronged fellow-creature 
carry up an unsettled account to the last 
tribunal. See to it, then, that you can go 
into another world without leaving a sin- 
gle person in this world to charge you with 
wronging him out of a farthing. For death 
is not the last of it ; settling-day comes in 
the next world. 

2. No person who has any others de- 
pendent on him is ready to die unless he 
24 



1 86 BEULAH-LAND. 

has made proper provision for them. Some 
people are afraid to make a will lest death 
should overhear the scratch of their pens 
and be on their track. This is worse than 
cowardice ; it is often a most shameful in- 
justice to surviving kindred. Not only 
should every conscientious man make a 
will, but the first provision in it should be 
for those w r ho have the strongest moral 
claim. Healthy, prosperous, well-educated 
children have not a claim so strong as in- 
firm parents have, or poor invalid relatives, 
or some benefactor who has never had his 
due. When you have discharged all the 
honest claims of those who are dependent, 
then make your Lord and Saviour your 
residuary legatee. Put your money where 
it will do the most good after you are 
gone ; for stewardship reaches beyond the 
surrogate's office : it goes up to the day of 
judgment. It is a blessed privilege to be 



READY! 187 

scattering Bibles, or building asylums, or 
supporting missionaries, or educating poor 
freedmen, after you have reached heaven. 
Frederick Marquand went up to his rest 
years ago, but he built a noble edifice for 
the young men of Brooklyn, another for 
Mr. Moody's Christian school among the 
hills of Massachusetts, and other similar 
structures elsewhere. Give the Lord all 
you can while you live ; and then make 
such a will as you will not be ashamed to 
show him when you come into his pres- 
ence. 

3. A third close question for you to ask 
is — Am I forgiven ? Not merely by any 
fellow-creature whom you may have in- 
jured or wounded. See to that, of course; 
see to it that no injuries unredressed and 
no harsh words unrepaired and no bitter 
memories be laid in your coffin; let no 
nettles grow in the turf above your ashes. 



1 88 BEULAH-LAND. 

But the more vital question is, Have 
your sins been forgiven ? All those evil 
thoughts towards God, all those secret 
sins that nobody has ever seen or dreamed 
of, all those transgressions of God's pure 
law, all your lost opportunities to do good, 
all your woundings of Christ's love and 
grievings of his Holy Spirit, have all these 
been pardoned ? If not, they will condemn 
your soul and blast your hopes in eternity- 
Have you gone to Christ for forgiveness? 
u Through his name whosoever believeth 
in him shall receive remission of sins." 
Have you made honest confession and im- 
plored pardon in Jesus' name? Have you 
clinched the sincerity of your confession 
by abandoning the sins you have loved, 
and set about a life of obedience to Christ's 
commandments? No repentance is of any 
avail that does not lead to Christ. When 
you get rid of the old heart, by having a 



READY! i8g 

new and a clean heart — when you begin a 
new life in Christ and for Christ, then you 
are ready either to stay in this world or to 
go away into a better. " Blessed is the 
man whose transgressions are covered." 
There is no condemnation in this world or 
in the next world to the man who is in 
Christ Jesus. 

Other questions might be started. But 
if you are sure on these points that have 
just been named, if you can give an hon- 
est " yes " to the questions already stated, 
then you need not be afraid to hear your 
name called. You need not be ashamed 
to present yourself at the door of your Fa- 
ther's House. That door will open to give 
you " an abundant entrance." 



i go BEULAH-LAND. 



23. CHEERFUL THOUGHTS ABOUT GOING 

HOME. 

There is one thing that we have all 
got to do one of these days, and that is 
to die. It is well, as rare old Jeremy 
Taylor phrased it, to go " knock at the 
gate of our grave " occasionally, and to lis- 
ten whether any painful echo comes back 
from within. When I am visiting my 
beautiful plot in peerless " Greenwood " I 
often forecast the inevitable hour when 
my earthly vesture shall be laid down be- 
side those of my beloved children in our 
family bed-room — " asleep in Jesus." I 
look off to a neighboring hill and see the 
monument of Prof. Morse, and then to- 
wards another hillock which bears the 
tomb of the benevolent millionnaire, John 



CHEERFUL THOUGHTS. igi 

C. Green, and then over at Oak Knoll, on 
which my old friend Horace Greeley rests 
after his busy life, and then away to still 
another elevation on whose verdant slope 
slumbers the eloquent Dr. George W. Be- 
thune, who wrote, 

"It is not death to die — 
To leave this weary road, 
And 'mid the brotherhood on high 
To be at home with God." 

This is the right way for a redeemed 
child of Christ to think and to speak about 
dying. A great many good people are 
plagued and tormented with a vague hor- 
ror about their last hours ; they have heard 
about the " pangs of death " and " death- 
bed agonies," and really die a thousand 
deaths themselves by frightened anticipa- 
tion. Now it may relieve some of these 
excellent folk to be reminded that in the 
vast majority of cases there is but little 



192 BEULAH-LAND. 

physical suffering in the last moments. 
To a genuine Christian few things in life 
are less painful than life's close. If our 
souls are at peace we need not trouble 
ourselves about bodily sufferings — for 
commonly fatal disease has a certain be- 
numbing effect upon the nerves, so that 
the dying suffer very little. Such has been 
my observation. " I had not thought," 
said a certain good man, "that it could be 
so easy a thing to die." As life ebbs away 
usually sensibility to pain goes with it. 
So gently did a certain eminent chemist 
breathe his last that a teaspoon of milk 
which he held in his hand was not even 
upset ; the dead hand held it still. 

Death is very often a slow fading out of 
the faculties, like the coming on of a tran- 
quil twilight. The sense of hearing some- 
times remains intensely acute, so that the 
dying overhear a whisper in the room. 



CHEERFUL THOUGHTS. ipj 

" She is sinking very fast," was whispered 
by an attendant in the dying-chamber of 
a godly woman. " No, no," was the quick 
response of her who had overheard the 
words ; " no, I am not sinking; I am in the 
arms of my Saviour." The sense of sight 
generally weakens in the process of dying. 
A medical friend of mine said to his wife, 
" Set that lamp up closer to me ; the room 
seems to be growing dark." Such were 
the sensations of Dr. Adam, the learned 
principal of the Edinburgh High School, 
who fancied himself to be in his school- 
room, and murmured gently, " Boys, it is 
getting dark ; you may go home." 

Of deaths on the battlefield a large pro- 
portion must be without severe physical 
agony; for a gunshot wound is apt to 
benumb the sensibilities. When a bullet 
pierces either the heart or the brain there 
can be no pain ; probably our glorious mar- 



194 BEULAH-LAND. 

tyr Abraham Lincoln " never knew what 
hurt him." Drowning is far from pain- 
ful. Those who have been resuscitated 
tell us that their sensations were rather 
exhilarating. Somewhat similar are the 
feelings of those who have been benumbed 
with cold in the Arctic regions; they 
imagined themselves to be sinking into 
a sweet slumber. But the recovery, the 
thawing out, was an excruciating agony. 
It is about the same with backsliders in 
our churches : they find it very easy to 
drop off into spiritual torpor, but when 
God in mercy wakes them up, and brings 
them to by severe chastisements, the pro- 
cess of soul-conviction and contrition in- 
volves sharp sufferings. Blessed be the 
blow that awakens a freezing Christian ! 

I have witnessed a few jubilant and tri- 
umphant dying-beds, but ecstatic raptures 
are rare. Calm, sweet tranquillity is often- 



CHEERFUL THOUGHTS. i 95 

er the attitude of the child of God who is 
waiting for the messenger to bear him 
home. On the other hand, I have but 
seldom witnessed poignant distress on the 
part of those who had given no evidence 
of preparation to meet God. To all such, 
however quiet may be their exit, the terri- 
ble pang must come afterwards. The real 
" sting of death " is not bodily pain, or 
separation from loved ones, or momentary 
remorse ; it is a wasted life, a rejected 
Saviour, and a lost soul! The full con- 
sciousness and the consequences of these 
are realized in the next world. 

It is not wise nor well for a genuine, 
active and healthy Christian to be think- 
ing too often about dying. To do every 
day a full, brave day's work is the main 
thing. Don't let us look too far ahead; 
the blessed wages will be sure when sun- 
down comes. Our loving Father keeps 



iq6 BEULAH-LAND. 

our times in his own hand ; he knows 
when to dismiss us from the life-school 
and promote us to the higher grade in 
heaven. It is a luxury to live a full, 
hearty, vigorous life for Jesus, sowing and 
reaping, filling and being filled. As soon 
as God has something better for us to do, 
and something richer for us to enjoy, and 
something higher for us to reach, let us 
joyfully go up yonder after them. 

" 'Tis a blessing to live, but a greater to die ; 
And the best of this world is its path to the sky/' 



AN E YE ON HE A VEN. igy 



24. AN EYE ON HEAVEN 

A wise man who is setting out for a 
foreign country — especially if he intends 
to reside there — -will study the localities 
in that land, and seek to become acquaint- 
ed with the language and the customs of 
its people. His thoughts will be much 
upon it. But do the great majority even 
of true Christians spend much time on 
thought about heaven ? Yet it is to be 
their dwelling-place through innumerable 
ages. At no distant day — perhaps within 
a few days to some of us — the veil that 
hides the eternal world may drop, and the 
gates of the Father's house may open be- 
fore our astonished vision ! If heaven is 
ready for Christ's redeemed people, then 



iq8 BEULAH-LAND. 

surely they should be making ready for 
heaven. 

We ought to be thinking more about 
our future and everlasting home. If our 
treasures are there, then our hearts should 
be there also in frequent and joyful antici- 
pations. John Bunyan tells us of his Pil- 
grim that " his heart waxed warm about 
the place whither he was going." This 
world is not our rest. It is only our tem- 
porary lodging-place, our battle-ground to 
fight sin and Satan, our vineyard in which 
to labor for our Master and our fellow- 
men until sundown, our training-school for 
the development of character and growth 
in grace. A thoroughly spiritual person, 
who makes Jesus Christ real and the pow- 
ers of the world to come real, and who 
has set his affections on things above, 
must inevitably have some deep medita- 
tions about his home and his magnificent 



AN E YE ON HE A VEN. igg 

inheritance. He loves to read about it, 
and gathers up eagerly the few grand, 
striking things which his Bible tells him 
about the jasper walls, and the gates of 
pearl, and the trees that bear twelve man- 
ner of fruits, and the crystal streams that 
flow flashing from beneath the throne of 
God. Among his favorite hymns are 
11 Jerusalem the Golden " and the " Shin- 
ing Shore"; they are like rehearsals for 
his part by-and-by in the sublime oratorios 
of heaven. Sometimes, when cares press 
heavily, or bodily pains wax sharp, or 
bereavements darken his house, he gets 
homesick, and he says, " Oh that I had 
wings, like a dove ; then would I fly away 
and be at rest I" 

Such devout meditations do not prove 
any man or woman to be a dreamy mystic. 
They are not the pious sentimentalizings 
of mourners to whom this world has lost 



200 BEULAH-LAND. 

all its charm, or of enthusiasts whose relig- 
ion evaporates in mere emotion. The 
hundred-handed Paul constantly reminds 
his fellow-workers that their "citizenship 
is in heaven." The godly Samuel Ruther- 
ford, who was said to be always studying, 
always preaching, and always visiting the 
sick, found time to feed on anticipations 
of Paradise. He tells us that he often 
longed to "stand at the outer side of the 
gates of the New Jerusalem and look 
through a crevice of the door and see 
Christ's face." He exclaims, " Oh, time, 
run fast! Oh, fair day, when wilt thou 
dawn? Oh, shadows, flee away! Oh, 
well-beloved Bridegroom, be thou to me 
like the roe or the young hart on the 
mountains !" No man in modern times 
has written any volume so full of heavenly 
aspirations as Richard Baxter's " Saint's 
Everlasting Rest" Yet Baxter was one 



AN E YE ON HE A VEN. 201 

of the most practical of philanthropists. 
While meditating on the Better Country 
he wore his busy life out in striving to 
make England a better country; and the 
town of Kidderminster was revolutionized 
by his ceaseless labors for the bodies and 
the souls of its inhabitants. Intense spirit- 
uality and intense practicality were beauti- 
fully united in the late Dr. A. J. Gordon, 
of Boston. If he kept one eye on heaven, 
he kept the other wide open to see the 
sins and the snares and the sorrows of his 
fellow-creatures all around him. I verily 
believe that if we thought more about 
heaven, and realized more its ineffable 
blessedness, we would strive harder to get 
others there ; we would not be content to 
travel thither on a path only wide enough 
for one. 

It is no wonder that some professed 
Christians do not catch more distinct 
26 



202 BEULAH-LAND. 

glimpses of the celestial world. Their vis- 
ion is obscured. As a very small object 
when held close to the eye will hide even 
the sun at noonday, so a Christian may 
hold a dollar so close to the eye of his 
soul as to shut out both Christ and heav- 
en. Fishes down in the Mammoth Cave 
become eyeless at last ; and so will any of 
us lose even the faculty of seeing if we 
shut ourselves in a cavern of grinding 
worldliness or utter unbelief. Perhaps 
some reader of this article may despond- 
ingly say, " Well, I never get any sight 
of heaven ; I am all in a mist ; nothing 
but clouds and darkness before my eyes." 
My friend, look where you are standing. 
You are in Satan's marshy grounds and 
among the quagmires where the fogs dwell 
continually. Ever since you left the 
" King's highway," ever since you forsook 
the straight path of duty, ever since you 



AN E YE ON HE A VEN. 203 

quit honest praying and Christian work, 
and God's Book for your ledger, and the 
service of Christ for the service of Mam- 
mon, you have strayed away into the 
devil's territory ! Heaven is not visible 
to backsliders. And never until your 
feet take hold again of that strait path 
of sincere, unselfish obedience to Jesus 
Christ, and your eyes are washed out with 
some sincere tears of repentance, will you 
have any fresh, gladdening glimpse of that 
rest which remaineth for the people of 
God. Throw off your load, my friend, 
and the sins that so easily beset you, and, 
getting your feet again in the track, run 
with patience the race set before you, look- 
ing unto Jesus, the author and finisher of 
your faith. When you get your eye fixed 
again on Christ you will no longer com- 
plain that heaven is utterly out of sight. 
Those whose conversation is in heaven, 



204 BEULAH-LAND. 

and who keep it constantly before them, 
have abundant sources of spiritual joy. 
They renew their strength as they push 
upward and heavenward. What is it to 
them that the road is long and sometimes 
the hills of difficulty are steep, that there 
are often lions in the way, that there are 
crosses to be carried, that there are some 
valleys of the death-shadow to be thread- 
ed, and that not far ahead is that river 
over which there is no bridge ! All these 
things do not disturb them. Heaven lieth 
at the end of the way, clothed in its purple 
and its golden light. The Mount Zion is 
there — the city of the living God and the 
innumerable company of angels, some of 
whom may turn out to be old friends who 
have had their eye on us ever since we 
were born into Christ. From the hilltops 
we can, with the spy-glass of faith, bring 
heaven so near that we can see its " bul- 



AN E YE ON HE A VEN. 205 

warks with salvation strong " and "its 
streets of shining gold." 

These views of the certain and assured- 
ly promised inheritance of glory ought to 
quicken our zeal prodigiously. The time 
is short, and shortening every day. If we 
are to have treasures there we must be 
securing them ; no time is to be lost. If 
we are to lead any souls there we must be 
out after them. If we are to wear any 
crown there, however humble, we must 
win it. Christian zeal depends on inward 
warmth; and much of that heat must 
come from heaven. " When," exclaimed 
grand old Baxter, " when, oh my soul, hast 
thou been warmest? When hast thou 
most forgot thy wintry sorrows ? Is it not 
when thou hast got above, closest to Jesus 
Christ, and hast conversed with him, and 
viewed the mansions of glory, and filled 
thyself with sweet foretastes, and talked 



206 BEULAH-LAND. 

with the inhabitants of the higher world ?" 
Certain it is that he who loves not Christ 
and his fellow-men loves not heaven ; and 
he who loves not heaven is not very likely 
to see heaven. A true life is just a tarry- 
ing and a toiling in this earthly tent for 
Christ until we go into the mansions with 
Christ. Fellow-workers, the miles to heav- 
en are few and short ; let us be found busy 
in heart and hand when the summons 
sounds, " Come up hither !" 



THREESCORE AND TEN. 207 



THREESCORE AND TEN. 

To me the years have gentler grown, 

And time more gracious now than then, 
Though here I sit and muse alone, 
Threescore and ten. 

The best of living is the last, 

And life seems sweetest at its close ; 
And something richer than the past 
These days disclose. 

I mourn not now the silvered hair, 

The trembling hand, the failing power, 
As here I wait and calmly dare 
The coming hour. 

What dreams of honor or of gain, 

Of wreaths or crowns to grace my brow, 
Once stirred my spirit, none remain 
To stir me now. 

The tossing life, the hope and fear, 

The strife, the pain of earlier days — 
On these, all past, I look with clear 
Unshrinking gaze. 

And even when I sorrow most, 

Yet happy are the tears I shed, 
And bright the memories of the lost : 
The precious dead. 



208 BEULAH-LAND. 

The increase of the corn and wine, 

And growing gladness in the heart, 
And wondrous grace and joy are mine, 
From men apart. 

Alone, but not alone, I stand ; 

Around, above, a Power divine 
Is shining, and a heavenly Hand 
Is touching mine. 

Strange glories gild my closing day, 

And one bright star from out the west 
Calls me in tender tones away 
From work to rest. 

And voices which amid the din 

Of outward life I could not hear 
Are gently whispering within 
Their words of cheer. 

So, welcome is each flying year, 

And welcome is this silent bliss ; 
Nor aught the noisy world can bear 
Compares with this. 

And so, reclining on the slope 

Of life, apart from busy men, 
I firmly grasp this larger hope— 
Threescore and ten ! 

Edward D. Morris, D. D. 
Lane Seminary, Ohio. 



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